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THE WATER-BABIES 

A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 





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4 I 







THE 


WATER-BABIES 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


CHARLES KINGSLEY 
I 

WITH SIXTY ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 


GILBEET H. McKIBBIN 


474 West Broadway 



Tjwrr 

7^981 


A 




1 

f 

2: IN UNIFORM STYLE 

C/)' 


Square 16mo. Cloth. With illustrations in black and white^ 
and in Colors. Each volume, 40 cents. 


1. ROBINSON CRUSOE. With 46 illustrations in colors. 


2. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With 42 illustra- 
tions in colors. 


3. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND 
THERE. With 50 illustrations in colors. 


4. THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS. With 36 illustrations in colors, 

5. GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES. With 36 illustrations in colors. 

6. ANDERSEN’S FAIRY TALES. With 36 illustrations in colors. 


NURSERY TALES. With 80 illustrations in black and white and 

in colors. 


8. A CHILD’S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 40 illustrations in colors. 


9. THE STORY OF THE BIBLE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. With 50 
illustrations in colors. 


10. THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. With 24 illustrations in colors. 


11. WOOD’S NATURAL HISTORY. With 140 illustrations in black 
and white, and in colors. 


12. THE WATER BABIES. With 60 illustrations in black and white, 

and in colors. 

13. GT^ULlV^y^’S TRAVELS. With 62 illustrations in black and white, 

' a^d io bolors. 

14. ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT. With 70 illustrations in 

black and white, and in colors. 


15. THE AGE OF FABLE. Copiously illustrated in black and white, 
and in colors. 


Others in Preparation 


Gilbert H, McKibbin, 474 West Broadway, New York. 




Copyright, 1900, by G. H. McKibbin. 



THE WATER-BABIES. 


CHAPTER I. 

Once upon a time there was a little chimney- 
sweep, and his name was Tom. He lived in a great 
town in the North country, where there were 
plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money 
for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could 
not read nor write, and did not care to do either ; 
and he never washed himself, for there was no 
water up the court where he lived. He had never 
been taught to say his prayers. He never had 
heard of God, or of Christ, except in words which 
you never have heard, and which it would have 
been well if he had never heard. He cried half his 
time, and laughed the other half. He cried when 
he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor 
knees- and elbows raw ; and when Ihe soot got into 
his eyes, which it did every day in the week ; and 
when his master beat him, which he did every day 
in the week ; and when he had not enough to eat, 

7 


8 


THE WATEE-BABIES. 


which happened every day in the week likewise. 
And he laughed the other half of the day, when he 
was tossing pennies with the other boys, or playing 
leap-frog over the posts, or bowling stones at the 
horses’ legs as they trotted by, which last was ex- 
cellent fun, when there was a wall at hand behind 
which to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and be- 
ing hungry, and being beaten, he took all that for 
the way of the world, like the rain and snow and 
thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it 
till it was over ; and then shook his ears and was 
as jolly as ever , and thought of the fine times com- 
ing, when he would be a man, and a master sweep, 
and sit in the public-house with a quart of beer and 
a long pipe, and play cards, and keep a white bull- 
dog with one gray ear, and carry her puppies in 
his pocket, just like a man. And he would have 
apprentices, and would knock them about just as 
his master did him ; and make them carry home 
the soot sacks while he rode before them on his 
donkey, with a pipe in his mouth and a flower in 
his button-hole. Yes, there were good times com- 
ing ; and, when his master let him have a pull at 
the leavings of his beer, Tom was the j oiliest boy 
in the whole town. 

One day a smart little groom rode into the court 
where Tom lived. Tom was just hiding behind a 
wall, to heave half a brick at his horse’s legs, as is 
the custom of that country when they welcome 
strangers ; but the groom saw him, and hallooed to 
him. to know where Mr. Grimes, the chimney-sweep, 
lived. Now, Mr. Grimes was Tom’s own master, 
and Tom was a good man of business, and always 
civil to customers, so he put the half-brick down 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


9 


quietly behind the wall, and proceeded to take 
orders. 

Mr. Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir 
John Harthover’s, at the Place, for his old chimney- 
sweep \^^as gone to prison, and the chimneys wanted 
sweeping. The groom looked so very neat and 
clean, with his drab gaiters, drab breeches, drab 
jacket, snow-white tie with a smart pin in it, and 
clean, round, 
ruddy face, 
that Tom con- 
sidered him a 
stuck-up fel- 
low, who gave 
himself airs 
because he 
wore smart 
clothes, and 
other people 
paid for them ; 
and went be- 
hind the wall 
to fetch the 
half-brick af- 
ter all, but did 
not, remem- 
bering that he 
had come in the way of business, and was, as it 
were, under a flag of truce. 

His master was so delighted at his new customer 
that he knocked Tom down out of hand, and drank 
more beer that night than he usually did in two, 
in order to be sure of getting up in time next morn- 
ing ; for the more a man’s head aches when he 




10 


THE WATEE-B ABIES, 


wakes the more glad he is to turn out and have a 
breath of fresh air. And, when he did get up at 
four the next morning, he knocked Tom down again, 
in order to teach him that he must be an extra 
good boy that day, as they were going ta a very 
great house, and might make a very good thing of 
it, if they could hut give satisfaction. 

And Tom thought so likewise, and would have 
behaved his best, even without being knocked down. 
For, of all places upon earth, Harthover Place 
(which he had never seen) was the most wonderful, 
and of all men on earth, Sir John (whom he had 
seen, having been sent to jail by him twice) was 
the most awful. 

Harthover Place was really a grand Place ; with 
a park full of deer, which Tom believed were in the 
habit of eating children ; with miles of game-pre- 
serves, in which Grimes and the collier lads poached 
at times, on which occasions Tom saw pheasants, 
and wondered what they tasted like ; with a noble 
salmon-river, in which Grimes and his friends 
would have liked to poach ; but then they must 
have got into cold water, and that they did not like. 
In short, Harthover was a grand place, and Sir 
John a grand old man. He owned all the land 
about for miles ; he was a jolly, honest, sensible 
squire, who would do what he thought right by his 
neighbors, as well as get what he thought right for 
himself ; but, what was more, he weighed full fif- 
teen stone, was nobody knew how many inches 
round the chest, and could have thrashed Grimes 
himself in fair fight, which very few folk round 
there could do. So Grimes touched his hat to him 
when he rode through the town, and called him a 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


11 


^^buirclly awd chap,” and his young ladies ‘^gradely 
lassies,” which are two high compliments in the 
North country. 

Now, I dare say, you never got up at three o’clock 
on a midsummer morning. Some people get up 
then because they want to catch salmon ; and some 
because they want to climb Alps ; and a great many 
more, like Tom, because they must. But three 
o’clock on a mid- 
summer morning 
is the pleasantest 
time of all the 
twenty-four 
hours. Tom went 
to bed at seven, 
when his master 
went to the pub- 
lic house, and 
slept like a dead 
pig ; for which 
reason he was as 
pert as a game- 
cock (who always gets up early to wake the maids), 
and just ready to get up when the fine gentlemen 
and ladies were just ready to go to bed. 

So he and his master set out ; Grimes rode the 
donkey in front, and Tom and the brushes walked 
behind. They passed through the pitmen’s village, 
all shut up and silent now, and through the turn- 
pike ; and then they were out in the real country, 
and plodding along the black dusty road, between 
black slag walls, with no sound but the groaning 
and thumping of the pit-engine in the next field. 
But soon the road grew white, and at the wall’s 



12 


THE WATEE-BABIES, 


foot grew long grass and gay flowers, all drenched 
with dew ; and instead of the groaning of the pit- 
engine, they heard the skylark saying his matins 
high up in the air, and the pit-bird warbling in the 
sedges, as he had warbled all night long. 

All else was silent. For old Mrs. Earth was still 
fast asleep ; and, like many pretty people, she looked 
still prettier asleep than awake. The great elm-trees 
in the gold-green meadow were fast asleep above, 
and the cows fast asleep beneath them ; nay, the few 
clouds which were about were fast asleep likewise, 
and so tired that they had lain down on the earth 
to rest, in long white flakes and bars, among the 
stems of the elm- trees, and along the tops of the 
elders by the stream, waiting for the sun to bid 
them rise and go about their day’s business in the 
clear blue over head. 

On they went ; and Tom looked, and looked, for 
he never had been so far into the country before ; 
and longed to get over a gate, and pick buttercups, 
and look for birds’ nests in the hedge ; but Grimes 
was a man of business, and would not have heard 
of that. 

Soon they came up with a poor Irish- worn an, 
trudging along with a bundle at her back. She had 
a gray shawl over her head, and a crimson petti- 
coat. She had neither shoes nor stockings, and 
limped along as if she were tired and footsore ; but 
she was a very tall handsome woman, with bright 
gray eyes, and heavy black hair hanging about her 
cheeks. And she took Grimes’ fancy so much, that 
when he came alongside he called out to her : 
‘‘This is a hard road for a gradely foot like that. 
Will ye up, lass, and ride behind me ? ” 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LANB-BABT. 13 

But, perhaps, she did not admire Grimes’ look 
and voice ; for she answered quietly : “No, thank 
you : I’d sooner walk with your little lad here.” — 
“ You may please yourself,” growled Grimes, and 
went on smoking. 

So she walked beside Tom, and talked to him, 
and asked him where he lived, and what he knew, 
and all about him- 
self, till Tom 
thought he had 
never met such a 
pleasant -spoken 
woman. And she 
asked him, at last, 
whether he said his 
prayers ! and seem* 
ed sad when he told 
her that he knew 
no prayers to say. 

Then he asked 
her where she lived, 
and she said far 
away by the sea. 

And Tom asked 
about the sea ; and 
she told him how 
it rolled and roared 
over the rocks in 
winter nights, and lay still in the bright summer 
days, for the children to bathe and play in it ; and 
many a story more, till Tom longed to go and see 
the sea, and bathe in it likewise. 

At last, at the bottom of a hill, they came to a 
spring ; a real North country limestone fountain. 



14 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Out of a low cave of rock, at the foot of a limestone 
crag, the great fountain rose, bubbling, and gur- 
gling, so clear that you could not tell where the 
water ended and the air began ; and ran away under 
the road, a stream large enough to turn a mill ; 
among blue geranium, and golden globe-flower, and 
wild raspberry, and the bird-cherry with its tassels 
of snow. 

And there Grimes stopped and looked ; and Tom 
looked, too. Tom was wondering whether any- 
thing li^d in that dark cave, and came out at night 
to fl^ 'i^the meadows. Without a word Grimes 
got off hik donkey, and clambered over the low road 
wall, and knelt down, and began dipping his ugly 
head into the spring — and very dirty he made it. 

Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he could. 
The Irish-woman helped him, and showed him how 
to tie them up ; and a very pretty nosegay they had 
made between them. But when he saw Grimes 
actually wash, he stopped, quite astonished ; and 
when Grimes had finished, and began shaking his 
ears to dry them, he said : Why, master, I never 
saw you do that before.’- 

‘^Nor will again, most likely. ’T wasn’t for 
cleanliness I did it, but for coolness. I’d be 
ashamed to want washing every week or so, like 
any smutty collier lad.” 

“I wish I might dip my head in,” said Tom. 

It must be as good as putting it under the town- 
pump ; and there is no beadle here to drive a chap 
away.” 

‘‘Thou come along,” said Grimes; “what dost 
want with washing thyself ? Thou did not drink 
half a gallon of beer last night, like me.” 


A FAiar TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


15 


“ I don’tcare £oryou,”said naughty Tom, and ran 
down to the stream, and began washing his face. 

Grimes was sulky, because the woman preferred 
Tom’s company to his ; so he dashed at him with 
horrid words, and began beating him. But Tom 
was accustomed to that, and got his head safe 
between Grimes’ legs, and kicked his shins with ail 
his might. ^ Are you not ashamed of yourself, 
Thomas Grimes ? ” cried the Irish-woman over the 
wall. 

Grimes looked up, startled at her knowing his 
name ; but all he answered was, ‘‘No, nor ever was 
yet ; ” and went on beating Tom. — “ True for you. 
If you ever had been ashamed of yourself, you would 
have gone over into Yendale long ago.” 

“ What do you know about Yendale ? ” shouted 
Grimes ; but he left off beating Tom. — “ I know about 
Yendale, and about you, too. I know what happened 
in Aldermire Copse, by night, two years ago come 
Martinmas.” 

“You do ?” shouted Grimes ; and, leaving Tom, 
he climbed up over the wall, and faced the woman. 
Tom thought he was going to strike her ; but she 
looked him too full in the face for that. Yes ; I 
was there,” said the Irish-woman quietly. “You 
are no Irish-woman, by your speech,” said Grimes. 
“ Nevermind who I am. I saw what I saw ; and if 
yon strike that boy again, I can tell what I know.” 

Grimes seemed quite cowed, and got on his donkey 
without another word. “ Stop ! ” said the Irish- 
woman. “ I have one more word for you both ; for 
yorf will both see me again before all is over. Those 
that wish to be clean, clean they will be ; and those 
that wish to be foul, foul they will be. Remember. ” 


16 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


And she turned away, and through a gate into the 
meadow. Grimes stood still a moment, like a man, 
who had been stunned. Then he rushed after her 
shouting. ‘‘ You come back.” But when he got into 
the meadow, the woman was not there. 

Had she hidden away ? There was no place to 
hide in. But Grimes looked about and Tom also, 
for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself at her dis- 
appearing so suddenly ; but look where they would 
she was not there. 

Grimes came back again as silent as a post, for he 
was a little frightened ; and, getting on his donkey, 
filled a fresh pipe, and smoked away, leaving Tom 
in peace. And now they had gone three miles more, 
and came to Sir John’s lodge-gates. 

Very grand lodges they were, with very grand 
iron gates and stone gate-posts, and on the top of 
each a most dreadful bogy, all teeth, horns, and tail, 
which was the crest which Sir John’s ancestors wore 
in the Wars of the Roses ; and very prudent men 
they were to wear it, for all their enemies must have 
run for their lives at the very first sight of them. 

Grimes rang at the gate, and out came a keeper, 
on the spot, and opened. I was told to expect 
thee,” he said. ‘‘Now thou’lt be so good as to 
keep to the main avenue, and not let me find a hare 
or rabbit on thee when thou comest back. I shall 
look sharp for one, I tell thee.” 

‘ Not if it’s in the bottom of the soot-bag,” quoth 
Grimes, and at that he laughed ; and the keeper 
laughed and said : “If that’s thy sort, I may as well 
walk up with thee to the hall.” 

“I think thou best had. It’s thy business to see 
after thy game, man, and not mine.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 17 

So the keeper went with them ; and, to Tom’s 
surprise, he and Grimes chatted together quite 
pleasantly. He did not know that a keeper is only 
a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper 
turned inside out. 

They walked up a great lime avenue, and between 
their stems Tom peeped trembling at the horns of 
the sleeping deer, which stood up among the ferns. 
Tom had never seen such trees, and he fancied that 
the blue sky rested on their heads. But he was 
puzzled by the murmuring noise, which followed 
them all the way. So much puzzled that at last 
he took courage to ask the keeper what it was. 

He spoke very civilly, and called him Sir, for he 
was horribly afraid of him, which pleased the 
keeper, and he told him that they were the bees 
about the lime flowers. 

What are bees ? ” asked Tom. 

“ What make honey.” 

‘ ^ What is honey ? ” asked Tom. 

‘ ‘ Thou hold thy noise, ” said Grimes. — Let the hoy 
be,” said the keeper. He’s a civil chap, and that’s 
more than he’ll be long if he hides with thee.” 

Grimes laughed, for he took that for a compliment. 

I wish I were a keeper,” said Tom, “ to live in 
such a beautiful place, and wear green velveteens 
and have a real dog- whistle at my button, like you.” 

The keeper laughed ; he was a kind-hearted 
fellow. “ Let well alone, lad, and ill, too, at times. 
Thy life’s safer than mine at all events, eh. Grimes ? ” 

And Grimes laughed again, and then the two 
men began talking quite low. Tom could hear, 
though, that it was about some poaching fight ; and 
at last Grimes said surlily, ‘‘Hast thou anything 


18 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


against me?” — “Not now.” — “Then don’t ask me 
any questions till thou hast, for I am a man of 
honor. ” And at that they both laughed again, and 
thought it a very good joke. And by this time 
they were come up to the great iron gates 
in front of the house ; and Tom stared through 
them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, which were 
all in flower ; and then at the house itself, and 
wondered how many chimneys there were in it, and 
how long ago it was built, and what was the man’s 
name that built it, and whether he got much money 
for his job? 

These last were very difficult questions to answer. 
For Harthover had been built at ninety different 
times, and in nineteen different styles, and looked 
as if somebody had built a whole street of houses 
of every imaginable shape, and then stirred them 
together with a spoon. 

For the attics were Anglo-Saxon. 

The third floor Norman. 

The second Cinque-cento. 

The first floor Elizabethan. 

The right wing pure Doric. 

The center early English, with a huge portico 
copied from the Parthenon. 

The left wing pure Bseotian, which the country 
folk admired most of all, because it was just like the 
new barracks in the town, only three times as big. 

The grand staircase was copied from the cata- 
combs at Eome. 

The back staircase from the Tajmahal at Agra. 
This was built by Sir John’s great- great-great-uncle, 
who won, in Lord Clive’s Indian Wars, plenty of 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


19 


money, plenty of wounds, and no more taste than 
his betters. 

The cellars were copied from the caves of Ele- 
phanta. The offices from the pavilion at Brighton. 

And the rest from nothing in heaven, or earth, or 
under the earth. 

So that Harthover House was a great puzzle to 
antiquarians, and a thorough Naboth’s vineyard to 
critics, and architects, and all persons who like med- 
dling with other men’s business, and spending other 
men’s money. So they were all setting upon poor 
Sir J ohn, trying to talk him into spending a hundred 
thousand pounds or so, in building, to please them 
and not himself. But he always put them off. One 
wanted him to build a Gothic house, but he said he 
was no Goth ; and another to build an Elizabethan, 
but he said he lived under Victoria, and not good 
Queen Bess ; and another was bold enough to tell 
him that his house was ugly, but he said he lived 
inside it, and not outside ; and another, that there 
was no unity in it, but he said that that was just 
why he liked the old place. For he liked to see how 
each Sir John, and Sir Hugh, and Sir Ealph, and 
Sir Kandal, had left his mark upon the place, each 
after his own taste ; and he had no more notion of 
disturbing his ancestors’ work than of disturbing 
their graves. For now the house looked like a 
real live house, that had a history, and had grown 
and grown as the world grew ; and that it was only 
an upstart fellow who would change it for some 
spick and span new Gothic or Elizabethan thing, 
which looked as if it had been all spawned in a night, 
as mushrooms are. From which you may infer that 


20 


THE WATER-BABIES. 



Sir John was a very sound-headed, sound-hearted 
squire, and just the man to keep the country-side 
in order, and show good sport with his hounds. 

But Tom and his 
master did not go 
in through the 
great iron gates, 
as if they had been 
Dukes or Bishops, 
but round the back- 
way, and into a 
little back-door, 
where the ash-boy 
let them in yawn- 
ing horribly ; and 
then in a passage 
the housekeeper 
met them, in such 
a flowered chintz 
dre s s i n g-g o w n, 
that Tom mistook 
her for My Lady 
herself, and she 
gave Grimes sol- 
emn orders about 
‘‘You will take 
care of this, and 
take care of that,” 
as if he was going up the chimneys, and not Tom. 
And Grimes listened, and said every now and then, 
under his voice, “ You’ll mind that, you little beg- 
gar ?” and Tom did mind, all at least that he could. 
And then the housekeeper turned them into a grand 
room, all covered up in sheets of brown paper, and 


A FAIBr TALE FOR A LAN1)-BABY. 21 

bade them begin. After a whimper or two, into 
the grate Tom went, and up the chimney, while a 
housemaid stayed in the room to watch the furni- 
ture. 

How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot say ; 
but he swept so many that he got quite tired, and 
puzzled, too, for they were not like the town flues to 
which he was accustomed, but such as you would And 
in old country- 
h o u s es ; large 
and crooked 
chimneys, 
which had been 
alt ered again 
and again, till 
they ran one in- 
to another an- 
astomosing 
c o n s i derably. 

So Tom fairly 
lost his way in 
them ; not that 
he cared much 
for that, 
though he was 
in pitchy dark- 
ness, for he was 
as much at 
home in a chim- 
ney as a mole 
is underground ; but at last, coming down as he 
thought the right chimney, he came down the 
wrong one, and found himself standing on the 
hearthrug in a room the like of which he had never 
seen before. 



2*2 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Tom had never been in gentlefolks’ rooms but 
when the carpets were all up, and the curtains 
down, and the furniture huddled together under a 
cloth, and the pictures covered with aprons and 
dusters ; and he had often wondered what the rooms 
were like when they were all ready for the quality 
to sit in. And now he saw, and he thought the 
sight very pretty. 

The room was all dressed in white — white win- 
dow-curtains, white bed-curtains, white furniture, 
and white walls, with just a few lines of pink here 
and there. The carpet was all over gay little 
flowers ; and the walls were hung with pictures in 
gilt frames, which amused Tom very much. There 
were pictures of ladies and gentlemen, and pictures 
of horses and dogs. The horses he liked ; but the 
dogs he did not care for much, for there were no 
bull-dogs among them, not even a terrier. But the 
two pictures which took his fancy most were, one a 
man in long garments, with little children and their 
mothers round him, who was laying his hand upon 
the children’s heads. That was a very pretty pic- 
ture, Tom thought, to hang in a lady’s room. For 
he could see that it was a lady’s room by the dresses 
which lay about. 

The other picture was that of a man nailed to a 
cross, which surprised Tom much. He fancied that 
he had seen something like it in a shop-window. 
But why was it there? ^‘Poor man!” thought 
Tom, and he looks so kind and quiet. But why 
should the lady have such a sad picture as that in 
her room ? Perhaps it was some kinsman of hers, 
who had been murdered by the savages in foreign 
parts, and she kept it there for a remembrance.” 


A FAIHr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 23 

And Tom felt sad, and awed, and turned to look at 
something else. 

The next thing he saw, and that too puzzled him, 
was a washing-stand, with ewers and basins, and soap 
and brushes, and towels, and a large bath full of clean 
water — what a heap of things all for washing ! 
“She must be a very dirty lady,’’ thought Tom, “ by 
my master’s rule, to want as much scrubbing as all 
that. But she must be very cunning to put the dirt 
out of the way so well afterwards, for I don’t see a 
speck about the room, not even on the very towels.” 
And then, looking towards the bed, he saw that dirty 
lady, and held his breath with astonishment. 

Under the snow-white coverlet, upon the snow- 
white pillow, lay the most beautiful little girl that 
Tom had ever seen. Her cheeks were almost as 
white as the pillow, and her hair was like threads of 
gold spread all about over the bed. She might have 
been as old as Tom, but Tom did not think of that. 
He thought only of her delicate skin and golden 
hair, and wondered whether she was a real live per- 
son, or one of the wax dolls he had seen in the shops. 
But when he saw her breathe, he made up his mind 
that she was alive, and stood staring at her, as if 
she had been an angel out of heaven. “No. She 
never could have been dirty,” thought Tom to him- 
self. And then he thought, “ And are all people 
like that when they are washed ? ” And he looked 
at his own wrist, and tried to rub the soot off, and 
wondered whether it ever would come off. “Cer- 
tainly I should look much prettier then, if I grew 
at all like her.” 

And looking round, he suddenly saw, standing 
close to him, a little ugly, black, ragged figure. 


24 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


with bleared eyes and grinning white teeth. He 
turned on it angrily. What did such a little black 
ape want in that sweet young lady’s room ? And 
behold, it was himself reflected in a great mirror 
the like of which Tom had never seen before. And 
Tom, for the first time in his life, found out that 
he was dirty ; and burst into tears with shame and 
anger ; and turned to sneak up the chimney again 
and hide ; and upset the fender and threw the fire- 
irons down, with a noise as of ten thousand tin 
kettles tied to ten thousand mad dogs’ tails. 

Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, and, 
seeing Tom, screamed as shrill as a peacock. In 
rushed a stout old nurse from the next room, and 
seeing Tom made up her mind that he had come to 
rob ; and dashed at him, as he lay over the fender, 
so fast that she caught him by the jacket. But she 
did not hold him. "He would have been ashamed to 
face his friends forever if he had been stupid 
enough to be caught by an old woman ; so he 
doubled under the good lady’s arm, across the room, 
and out of the window in a moment. 

He did not need to drop out, though he would 
have done so bravely enough. Nor even to let 
himself down a spout, which would have been an 
old game to him. But all under the window spread 
a tree, with great leaves and sweet white flowers 
almost as big as his head. Down the tree he went, 
like a cat, and across the garden lawn, and over the 
iron railings, and up the park towards the wood, 
leaving the old nurse to scream murder and fire at 
the window. 

The under gardener, mowing, saw Tom, and 
threw down his scythe ; caught his leg in it, and 





26 


THE WATER BABIES, 


cut his shill open, whereby he kept his bed for a 
week ; but in his hurry he never knew it, and gave 
chase to poor Tom. The dairymaid heard the noise, 
got the churn between her knees, and tumbled over 
it, spilling all the cream ; and yet she jumped up, 
and gave chase to Tom. A groom cleaning Sir 
John’s hack at the stables let him go loose, whereby 
he kicked himself lame in five minutes ; but he ran 
out and gave chase to Tom. Grimes upset the soot- 
sack in the new-graveled yard, and spoilt it all 
utterly ; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom. 
The old steward opened the park-gate in such a 
hurry that he hung up his pony’s chin upon the 
spikes ; but he jumped off, and gave chase to Tom. 
The plowman left his horses at the headland, 
and one jumped over the fence and pulled the 
other into the ditch, plow and all ; but he ran on, 
and gave chase to Tom. The keeper, who was 
taking a stoat out of a trap, let the stoat go, and 
caught his own finger ; but he jumped up, and ran 
after Tom ; and, considering what he said and how 
he looked, I should have been sorry for Tom if 
he had caught him. The Irish-woman, too, was 
walking up to the house to beg — she must have got 
round by some byway — but she threw away her 
bundle, and also gave chase to Tom. 

In a word, never was there heard at Hall Place 
such a noise, row, hubbub, babel, shindy, hullabal- 
loo, and total contempt of dignity, repose, and order, 
as that day, when Grimes, gardener, the groom, 
the dairymaid. Sir John, the steward, the plow- 
man, the keeper, and the Irish-woman, all ran up 
the park, shouting ‘‘ Stop thief ! ” in the belief that 
Tom had at least a thousand pounds’ worth of jewels 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 27 

in his empty pockets ; and the very magpies and 
jays followed Tom up, screaking and screaming, as 
if he were a hunted fox, beginning to droop his 
brush. 

And all the while poor Tom paddled up the park 
with his little bare feet, like a small black gorilla 
fleeing to the forest. Tom, of course, made for the 
woods. He had never been in a wood in his life ; 
but he was sharp enough to know that he might 
hide in a bush, and had more chance there than in 
the open. If he had not known that, he would 
have been foolisher than a mouse or a minnow. 

But when he got into the wood, he found it a very 
different sort of a place from what he had fancied. 
He pushed into a thick cover of rhododendrons, and 
found himself caught in a trap. The boughs laid 
hold of his legs and arms, poked him in his face and 
his stomach, made him shut his eyes tight and 
when he got through the rhododendrons, the hassock- 
grass and sedges tumbled him over, and cut his poor 
little Angers most spitefully. 

must get out of this,*’ thought Tom, ‘^or I 
shall stay here till somebody comes to help me, 
which is just what I don’t want.” But how to get 
out was a difficult matter. I don’t think he would 
ever have got out at all, but have stayed there till 
the cock-robins covered him with leaves, if he had 
not suddenly run his head against a wall. 

Now running your head against a wall is not 
pleasant, if it be a loose wall, with the stones all set 
on edge, and a sharp-cornered one hits you between 
the eyes and makes you see all manner of beautiful 
stars. And so Tom hurt his head ; but he was a 
brave boy, and did not mind that. He guessed that 


28 


THE WATER BABIES, 


over the v/all the cover would end ; and up it he 
went, and over like a squirrel. And there he was, 
out on the great grouse-moors, which the country- 
folk called Harthover Fell— heather and hog and 
rock, stretching away and up, up to the very sky. 

Now, Tom was a cunning little fellow — as cunning 
as an old ex-moor stag. Why not ? Though he was 
but ten years old, he had lived longer than most 
stags, and had more wits to start with into the 
bargain. He knew as well as a stag that if he 
hacked he might throw the hounds out. So the 
first thing he did when he was over the wall was to 
make the neatest double sharp to his right, and run 
along under the wall for nearly half a mile. 

Whereby Sir John, and the keeper, and the 
steward, and the gardener, and the plowman, and 
the dairymaid, and all the hue-and-cry together, 
went on ahead half a mile in the very opposite 
direction, and inside the wall, leaving him a mile 
off on the outside ; while Tom heard their shouts 
die away in the woods and chuckled to himself 
merrily. 

At last he came to a dip in the land, and went to 
the bottom of it, and then he turned from the wall 
and up the moor ; for he knew that he had put a 
hill between him and his enemies, and could go on 
without their seeing him. 

But the Irish- woman, alone of them all, had seen 
which way Tom went. She had kept ahead of every 
one the whole time ; and yet she neither walked nor 
ran. She went along quite smoothly and gracefully, 
while her feet twinkled past each other so fast that 
you could not see which was foremost ; till every 
one asked the other who the strange woman was ; 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. '29 

and all agreed, for want of anything better to say, 
that she must be in league with Tom. 

But when she came to the plantation, they lost 
sight of her ; and they could do no less. For she 
went quietly over the wall after Tom, and followed 
him wherever he went. Sir John and the rest saw 
no more of her ; and out of sight was out of mind. 

And now Tom was right away into the heather. 
There were rocks and stones lying about everywhere, 
and instead of the moor growing flat as he went up- 
wards, it grew more and more broken and hill}^ but 
not so rough but that little Tom could jog along well 
enough, and find time, too, to stare about at the 
strange place, which was like a new world to him. 

He saw lizards, and thought they were snakes, 
and would sting him ; but they were as much 
frightened as he, and shot away into the heath. 
And then, under a rock, he saw a pretty sight — a 
great brown, sharp-nosed creature, with a white 
tag to her brush, and round her five smutty little 
cubs, the funniest fellows Tom ever saw. She lay 
on her back, rolling about, and stretching out her 
legs and head and tail in the bright sunshine ; 
and the cubs jumped over her, and ran round her, 
and nibbled her paws, and lugged her about by the 
tail ; and she seemed to enjoy it mightily. But one 
selfish little fellow stole away from the rest to a 
dead crow close by, and dragged it off to hide it, 
though it was nearly as big as he was. Whereat 
all his little brothers set off after him in full cry, 
and saw Tom ; and then all ran back, and up jumped 
Mrs. Vixen, and caught one up in her mouth, and 
the rest toddled after her, and into a dark crack in 
the rocks ; and there was an end of the show. 


30 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


So Tom went on and on, he hardly knew why ; 
but he liked the great wide, strange place, and tlie 
cool, fresh bracing air. But he went more and more 
slowly as he got higher up the hill ; for now the 
ground grew very bad indeed. Instead of soft turf 
and springy heather, he met great patches of fiat 
limestone rock, just like ill- made pavements, with 
deep cracks between the stones and ledges, filled 
with ferns ; so he had to hop from stone to stone, and 
now and then he slipped in between, and hurt his 
little bare toes, but still he would go on and up, he 
could not tell why. 

What would Tom have said if he had seen, walking 
over the moor behind him, the very same Irish- 
woman who had taken his part upon the road ? But 
whether it was that he looked too little behind him, 
or whether it was that she kept out of sight behind 
the rocks and knolls, he never saw her, though she 
was him. 

And now he began to get a little hungry, and 
very thirsty ; for he had run a long way, and the 
sun had risen high in heaven, and the rock was as 
hot as an oven, an the air danced reels over it, as it 
does over a limekiln, till everything round seemed 
quivering and melting in the glare. But he could 
see nothing to eat anywhere, and still less to drink. 

Now and then he passed by a deep dark swallow- 
hole, going down into the earth, as if it was the 
chimney of some dwarf’s house underground ; and 
more than once, as he passed, he could hear water 
falling, trickling, tinkling, many feet below. How 
he longed to get down to it, and cool his poor baked 
lips ! But, brave little chimney-sweep as he was, he 
dared not climb down such chimneys as those. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


31 


So he went on and on, till his head spun round 
with the heat, and he thought he heard church-bells 
ringing a long way off. ‘ ‘ Ah ! ” he thought, 
‘ ‘ where there is a church there will he houses and 
people ; and, perhaps, some one will give me a bit 
and a sup.” So he set off again, to look for the 
church ; for he was sure that he heard the bells 
quite plain. And in a minute more, when he looked 
round, he stopped again, and said, Why, what a 
big place the world is ! ” And so it was ; for, from 
the top of the mountain, he could see — what could 
he not see ? 

Behind him, far below, was Hartover, and the 
dark woods, and the shining-salmon river ; and on 
his left, was the town, and the smoking chimneys of 
the collieries ; and far away, the river widened to 
the shining sea ; and little white specks, which 
were ships, lay on its bosom. Before him lay farms, 
and villages, amid dark knots of trees. They all 
seemed at his very feet ; but he had sense to see 
that they were long miles away. And to his right 
rose moor after moor, hill after hill, till they faded 
away, blue into blue sky. But between him and 
those moors, and really at his very feet, lay some- 
thing, to which, as soon as Tom saw it, he deter- 
mined, to go, for that was the place for him. 

A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very narrow, 
and filled with wood ; but through the wood, 
hundreds of feet below him, he could see a clear 
stream glance. Oh, if he could hut get down to 
that stream ! Then, by the stream, he saw the roof 
of a little cottage, and a little garden set out in 
squares and beds. And there was a tiny little red 
thing moving in the garden, no bigger than a fly. 


32 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


As Tom looked down, he saw that it was a woman 
in a red petticoat. Perhaps she would give him 
something to eat. And there were the church-bells 
ringing again. Surely there must be a village down 
there. Well, nobody would know him, or what had 
happened at the Place. The news could not have 
got there yet, even if Sir John had set all the police- 
men in the county after him ; and he could get 
down there in five minutes. 

Tom was quite right about the hue-and-cry not 
having got thither ; for he had come, without know- 
ing it, the best part of ten miles from Harthover ; 
but he was wrong about getting down in five 
minutes, for the cottage was more than a mile off, 
and a good thousand feet below. 

However, down he went, like a brave little man 
as he was, though he was very footsore, and tired, 
and hungry, and thirsty ; while the church-bells 
rang so loud, he began to think that they must be 
inside his own head, and the river chimed and 
tinkled far below ; and this was the song which it 
sang : 

Clear and cool, clear and cool, 

By laughing shallow and dreaming pool ; 

Cool and clear, cool and clear, 

By shining shingle and foaming wear; 

Under the crag where the ouzel sings. 

And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, 
Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 


Dank and foul, dank and foul. 

By the smoky town in its murky cowl ; 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


33 


Foul and dank, foul and dank, 

By wharf and sewer and slimy bank ; 

Darker and darker the farther I go. 

Baser and baser the richer I grow ; 

Who dare sport with the sin-defiled ? 

Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child. 

Strong and free, strong and free. 

The floodgates are open, away to the sea, 

Free and strong, free and strong. 

Cleansing my streams as I hurry along. 

To the golden sands and the leaping bar, 

And the taintless tide that awaits me afar. 

As I lose myself in the infinite main. 

Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again. 
Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 

So Tom went down ; and all the while he never 
saw the Irish-woman going down behind him. 




34 


THE WA TER-B ABIES. 


CHAPTER IL 



A MILE 
off, and a 
4^-^thousa n d 
^feet down. 
So Tom 
^ found it ; 

though it seemed 
as if he could have 
chucked a pebble 
on to the back of 
the woman in the 
red petticoat who 
was weeding in the 
garden, or even 
across the dale to 
the rocks beyond. 
For the bottom of 
the valle}^ was just 
one field broad, and 
on the other side 
ran the stream ; and 
above it, gray crag, 
gray down, gray stair, gray moor, walled up to 
heaven. 

A quiet, silent, rich, happy place ; a narrow 




36 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


crack cut deep into the earth ; so deep, and so out 
of the way, that the bad bogies can hardly find it 
out. The name of the place is Vendale. So Tom 
went to go down ; and first he went down three 
hundred feet of steep heather, mixed up with 
loose brown gritstone, as rough as a file ; which was 
not pleasant to his poor little heels, as he came 
bump, stump, jump, down the steep. And still he 
thought he could throw a stone into the garden. 

Then he went down three hundred feet of lime- 
stone terraces, one below the other, as straight as 
if a carpenter had ruled them with his ruler and 
then cut them out with his chisel. There was no 
heath there, but — 

First, a little grass slope, covered with the pretti- 
est flowers, rockrose and saxifrage, and thyme and 
basil, and all sorts of sweet herbs. 

Then bump down a two-foot step of limestone. 
Then another bit of grass and flowers. Then bump 
down a one- foot step. Then another bit of grass 
and flowers for fifty yards, as steep as the house- 
roof, where he had to slide down on his dear little tail. 

Then another step of stone, ten feet high ; and 
there he had to stop himself, and crawl along the 
edge to find a crack ; for if he had rolled over, he 
would have rolled right into the old woman’s garden, 
and frightened her out of her wits. Then, when he 
had found a dark, narrow crack, full of green- 
stalked fern, and had crawled down through it, with 
knees and elbows, as he would down a chimney, 
there was another grass slope, and another step, 
and so on, till — oh, dear me ! I wish it was all 
over ; and so did he. And yet he thought he could 
throw a stone into the old woman’s garden. 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 


37 


At last he came to a bank of beautiful shrubs ; 
whitebeam and mountain-ash, and oak ; and below 
them cliff and crag, with great beds of crown-ferns 
and wood -sedge ; while through the shrubs he could 
see the stream sparkling, and hear it murmur on 
the white pebbles. He did not know that it was 
three hundred feet below. 

You would have been giddy, perhaps, at looking 
down : but Tom was not. He was a brave little 
chimney-sweep ; and when he found himself on the 
top of a high cliff, he said, Ah, this will just suit 
me !” though he was very tired ; and down he 
went, by stock and stone, sedge and ledge, bush and 
rush, as if he had been born a jolly little black ape, 
with four hands instead of two. 

And all the while he never saw the Irish-woman 
coming down behind him. 

But he was getting terribly tired now. The 
burning sun on the fells had sucked him up ; but the 
damp heat of the woody crag sucked him up still 
more ; and the perspiration ran out of the ends of 
his fingers and toes, and washed him cleaner than 
he had been for a year. But, of course, he dirtied 
everything terribly as he went. There has been a 
great black smudge all down the crag ever since. 
And there have been more black beetles in Vendale 
since than ever were known before. 

At last he got to the bottom. But, behold, it was 
not the bottom — as people usually find when they 
are coming down a mountain. For at the foot of 
the crag were heaps of fallen limestone of every 
size, with holes between them full of sweet heath- 
fern ; and before Tom got through them, he was 
out in the bright sunshine again ; and then he felt. 


88 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


once for all and suddenly, as people generally do, 
that he was b-e-a-t, beat. 

Y ou must expect to be beat a few times in your life, 
little man, if you live such a life as a man ought to 
live, let you be as strong and healthy as you may : 
and when you are you will find it a very ugly 
feeling. I hope that that day you may have a stanch 
friend by you who is not beat ; if you have not, you 
had best lie where you are, and wait for better 
times, as poor Tom did. 

He could not get on. The sun was burning, and 
yet he felt chill all over. He was quite empty, and 
yet he felt quite sick. There were but two hundred 
yards of smooth pasture between him and the 
cottage, and yet he could not walk down it. He 
could hear the stream murmuring only one field 
beyond it, and yet it seemed to him as if it was a 
hundred miles off. 

He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran over 
him, and the flies settled on his nose. But at last 
he woke up, and stumbled away, down over a low 
wall, and into a narrow road, and up to the cottage- 
door. 

And a pretty cottage it was, with clipped yew 
hedges all round the garden. And out of the open 
door came a noise like that of the frogs on the 
Great- A, when they know that it is going to be 
scorching hot to-morrow — and how they know that 
I don’t know, and you don’t know, and nobody 
knows. 

He came slowly up to the open door, which was 
all hung round with clematis and roses ; and then 
peeped in, half-afraid. And there sat by the empty 
fireplace, which was filled with a pot of sweet herbs, 


A FAIBV TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 39 

the nicest old woman that ever was seen, in her red 
petticoat, and short dimity bedgown, and clean 
white cap, with a black silk handkerchief over it, 
tied under her chin. At her feet sat the grand- 
father of all the cats ; and opposite her sat, on two 
benches, twelve or fourteen neat, rosy, chubby little 
children, learning their Chris-cross-row ; and gabble 
enough they made about it. 

Such a pleasant cottage it was, with a shiny clean 
stone floor, and curious old prints on the walls, and 
an old black oak sideboard full of bright pewter and 
brass dishes, and a cuckoo clock in the corner, which 
began shouting as soon as Tom appeared : not that it 
was frightened at Tom, but that it was just eleven 
o’clock. 

All the children started at Tom’s dirty black 
flgure — the girls began to cry, and the boys began 
to laugh, and all pointed at him rudely enough ; 
but Tom was too tired to care for that. What art 
thou, and what dost want ? ” cried the old dame. 
‘‘ A chimney-sweep ! Away with thee! I’ll have 
no sweeps here.” 

“Water,” said poor little Tom, quite faint. — 
“Water? There’s plenty i’ the beck,” she said, 
quite sharply. — “ But I can’t get there; I’m most 
clemmed with hunger and drought.” And Tom 
sank down upon the door-step, and laid his head 
against the post. And the old dame looked at him 
through her spectacles and then she said, “He’s 
sick ; and a bairn’s a bairn, sweep or none.” 

“Water,” said Tom. — “God forgive me!” and 
she put by her spectacles, and rose, and came to 
Tom. “ Water’s bad for thee ; I’ll give thee milk.” 
And she toddled off into the next room, and brought 


40 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


a cup of milk and a bit of bread. Tom drank the 
milk off at one draught, and then looked up, re- 
vived. 

‘‘Where didst come from?’’ said the dame. — 
“ Over Fell, there,” said Tom, and pointed up into 
the sky. — “Over Harthover? and down Lewth- 
waite Crag ? Art sure thou art not lying ? ” 

“Why should I?” said Tom, and leaned his head 
against the post. — “And how got ye up there? ” 

“ I came over from the Place ; ” and Tom was so 
tired and desperate he had no heart or time to think 
of a s.tory, so he told all the truth in a few words. 

“ Bless thy little heart ! And thou hast not been 
stealing, then ?”— “ No.” — “ Bless thy little heart ! 
and I’ll warrant not. Why, God’s guided the bairn, 
because he was innocent ! Away from the Place, 
and over Harthover Fell, and down Lewthwaite 
Crag I Who ever heard the like, if God hadn’t led 
him ? Why dost not eat thy bread ?” — “ I can’t.” 
“It’s good enough, for I made it myself.” 

“I can’t,” said Tom, and he laid his head on his 
knees, and then asked, “ Is it Sunday ? ” 

“No, then ; why should it be ? ” 

“Because I hear the church-bells ringing so.” 

“ Bless thy pretty heart ! The bairn’s sick. Come 
wi’ me, and I’ll hap thee up somewhere. If thou 
wert a bit cleaner I’d put thee in my own bed, for 
the Lord’s sake. But come along here.” 

But when Tom tried to get up, he was so tired 
and giddy that she had to help him and lead him. 
She put him in an outhouse upon soft, sweet hay 
and an old rug, and bade him sleep off his walk, 
and she would come to him when school was over, 
in an hour’s time. And so she went in again, ex- 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 41 

pecting Tom to fall fast asleep at once. But Tom 
did not fall asleep.” 

Instead of it he turned and tossed and kicked 
about in the strangest way, and felt so hot all over 
that he longed to get into the river and cool himself ; 
and then he fell half asleep, and dreamed that he 
heard the little white lady crying to him, “Oh, 
you’re so dirty ; go and be washed ; ” and then that 
he heard the Irish- woman saying, “Those that 
wish to be clean, clean they will be.” And then he 
heard the church-bells ring so loud, close to him, 
too, that he was sure it must be Sunday, in spite of 
what the old dame had said ; and he would go to 
church, and see what a church was like inside, for 
he had never been in one. But the people would 
never let him come in, all over soot and dirt like 
that. He must go to the river and wash first. And 
he said out loud again and again, though being 
half asleep he did not know it, “I must be clean, I 
must be clean.” 

All of a sudden he found himself, not in the out- 
house on the hay, but in the middle of a meadow, 
over the road, with the stream just before him, 
saying continually, “I must be clean, I must be 
clean. ” He had got there on his own legs, between 
sleep and awake, as children will often get out of 
bed, and go about the room when they are not 
quite well. But he was not a bit surprised, and 
went on to the bank of the brook, and lay down on 
the grass, and looked into the clear, clear limestone 
water, with every pebble at the bottom bright and 
clean, while the little silver trout dashed about in 
fright at the sight of his black face ; and he dipped 
his hand in and found it so cool : and he said, “ I 


42 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


will be a fish ; I will swim in the water ; I must 
be clean, I must be clean.’’ 

So he pulled off all his clothes, and put his poor 
hot sore feet into the water ; and then his legs ; and 
the farther he went in, the more the church-bells 
rang in his head. 

“Ah! ’’said Tom, “I must be quick and wash 
myself ; the bells are ringing quite loud now ; and 
they will stop soon, and then the door will be shut, 
and I shall never be able to get in at all.” 

Tom was mistaken : for in England the church 
doors are left open all service time, for everybody 
who likes to come in. Churchman or Dissenter ; ay, 
even if he were a Turk or a Heathen ; and if any 
man dare to turn him out, as long as he behaved 
quietly, the good old English law would punish 
that man, as he deserved, for ordering any peace- 
able person out of God’s house, which belongs to all 
alike. But Tom did not know that, any more than 
he knew a great deal more which people ought to 
know. And all the while he never saw the Irish- 
woman, not behind him this time, but before. 

For just before he came to the river side, she had 
stepped down into the cool clear water ; and her 
shawl and her petticoat floated off her, and the 
green water- weeds floated round her sides, and the 
white water-lilies floated round her head, and the 
fairies of the stream came up from the bottom and 
bore her away and down upon their arms ; for she 
was the Queen of them all. “Where have you 
been?” they asked her. — ‘‘I have been smoothing 
sick folk’s pillows, and whispering sweet dreams 
into their ears ; opening cottage casements, to let 
out the stifling air ; coaxing little children away 


A FAIRY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 43 

from gutters, and foul pools where fever breeds ; 
turning women from the gin-shop door, and staying 
men’s hands as they were going to strike their 
wives ; doing all I can to help those who will not 
help themselves : and little enough that is, and 
weary work for me. But I have brought you a 
new little brother, and watched him safe all the 
way here.” 

Then all the fairies laughed for joy at the thought 
that they had a little brother coming. But mind, 
maidens, he must not see you, or know that you 
are here. He is but a savage now, and like the 
beasts which perish ; and from the beasts which 
perish he must learn. So you must not speak to 
him, or let him see you : but only keep him from 
being harmed.” 

Then the fairies were sad, because they could not 
play with their new brother, but they always did 
what they were told. And their Queen floated 
away down the river ; and whither she went, thither 
she came. But all this Tom, of course, never saw 
or heard : and perhaps if he had it would have 
made little difference in the story ; for he was so 
hot and thirsty, and longed so to be clean for once, 
that he tumbled himself as quick as he could into 
the clear cool stream. 

And he had not been in it two minutes before he 
fell fast asleep, into the quietest, sunniest, cosiest 
sleep that ever he had in his life ; and he dreamed 
about the green meadows by which he had walked 
that morning and the tall elm -trees, and the sleep- 
ing cows ; and after that he dreamed of nothing at 
all. 

The reason of his falling into such a delightful 


44 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


sleep is very simple ; and yet hardly any one has 
found it out. It was merely that the fairies took 
him. 

Some people think that there are no fairies. But 
it is a wide world, my little man — and thank Heaven 
for it, or else some of us would get squashed — and 
plenty of room in it for fairies, without people seing 
them ; unless, of course, they look in the right place. 
The most wonderful and the strongest things in the 
world, are just the things which no one can see. 
There is life in you ; and it is the life in you which 
makes you grow, and move, and think : and yet you 
can’t see it. And there is steam in a steam-engine ; 
and that is what makes it move : and yet you can’t 
see it ; and so there may be fairies in the world, and 
they may be just what makes the world go round to 
the old song and yet no one way be able to see them 
except those whose hearts are going round to that 
same tune. At all events we will make believe 
that there are fairies in the world. And yet 
there is no need for that. There must be fairies ; 
for this is a fairy tale : and how can one have a 
fairy tale if there are no fairies ? You don’t see 
the logic of that ? Perhaps not. Then please not 
to see the logic of a great many arguments exactly 
like it, which you will hear before your beard is 
gray. 

The kind old dame came back at twelve, when school 
was over, to look at Tom : hut there was no Tom 
there. She looked about for his footprints ; but the 
ground was so hard that there was no slot, as they 
say in Devon. And if you grow up to be a brave 
healthy man, you may know some day what no slot 
means. 








46 


THE WATEE-BABIES. 


So the old dame went in again quite sulky, 
thinking that little Tom had tricked her with a 
false story, and shammed ill, and then run away 
again. But she altered her mind the next day. 
For when Sir John and the rest of them had run 
themselves out of breath, and lost Tom, they went 
back again looking very foolish. 

And they looked more foolish still when Sir John 
heard more of the story from the nurse ; and more 
foolish still, again, when they heard the whole 
story from Miss Ellie, the little lady in white. All 
she had seen was a poor little black chimney-sweep, 
crying and sobbing, and going to get up the chimney 
again. Of course, she was very much frightened : 
and no wonder. But that was all. The boy had 
taken nothing in the room ; by the mark of his 
little sooty feet, they could see that he had never 
been off the hearth-rug till the nurse caught hold 
of him. It was all a mistake. 

So Sir John told Grimes to go home, and promised 
him five shillings if he would bring the boy quietly 
up to him, without beating him, that he might be 
sure of the truth. For he took for granted, and 
Grimes, too, that Tom had made his way home. 
But no Tom came back to Grimes that evening ; 
and he went to the police to tell them to look out 
for the boy. But no Tom was heard of. As for 
his having gone over those great fells to Vendale, 
they no more dreamed of that than of his having 
gone to the moon. 

Sir John said to his lady, ‘^My dear, the boy 
rnust have got over into the grouse-moors, and lost 
himself ; and he lies very heavily on my conscience, 
poor little lad. But I know what I will do.” 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 47 

So at five the next morning up he got, and into his 
bath, and into his shooting-jacket and gaiters, and 
into the stableyard, and bade them bring his shoot- 
ing pony, and the keeper to come on his pony, and 
the huntsman, and the underkeeper with the blood- 
hound in a leash — a great dog, as tall as a calf, of 
the color of a gravel- walk, with mahogany ears and 
nose, and a throat Mke a church-bell. They took 
him up to the place where Tom had gone into the 
wood ; and there the hound lifted up his mighty 
voice, and told them all he knew. 

Then he took them to the place where Tom had 
climbed the wall ; and they shoved it down, and all 
got through. And then the wise dog took them 
over the moor, and over the fells, step by step, very 
slowly; for the scent was a day old. And at last 
he came to the top of Lewthwaite Crag, and there 
he bayed, and looked up in their faces, as much as 
to say, I tell you he is gone down here ! ” 

They could hardly believe that Tom would have 
gone so far ; and when they looked at that awful cliff, 
they could never believe that he would have dared to 
face it. But, if the dog said so, it must be true. 

Heaven forgive us ! ” said Sir John. ^Hf we find 
him at all, we shall find him lying at the bottom.’’ 
And he said, Who will go down over Lewthwaite 
Crag, and see if that boy is alive ? If I were twenty 
years younger, I would go down myself ! ” And so 
he would have done, as well as any sweep in the 
county. Then he said, ‘^Twenty pounds to the 
man who brings me that boy alive ! ” and as was his 
way, what he said he meant. 

Now among the lot was a little groom-boy, and 
he was the same who had ridden up the court, and 


48 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


told Tom to come to the Hall ; and he said, 

Twenty pounds or none, I will go down over 
Lewthwaite Crag, if it’s only for the poor boy’s 
sake. For he was as civil a spoken little chap as 
ever climbed a flue.” 

So down over Lewthwaite Crag he went : a very 

smart groom he 
was at the top, 
and a very shab- 
by one at the 
bottom ; for he 
tore his gaiters, 
and he tore his 
breeches, and he 
tore his jacket, 
and he burst his 
braces, and he 
burst his boots, 
and he lost his 
hat, and, what 
was worst of all, 
he lost his shirt 
pin, which he 
prized very 
much, for it was 
gold, and there 
was a figure at 
the top of it, of 

a mare, as natural as life ; so it was a really severe 
loss ; but he never saw anything of Tom. 

And all the while Sir John and the rest were 
riding round, full three miles to the right, and back 
again, to get into Vend ale, and to the foot of the 
crag. 





A FAIBV TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 49 

When they came to the old dame’s school, all the 
children came out to see. And the old dame came 
out, too ; and when she saw Sir John she curtsied 
very low, for she was a tenant of his. Well, dame, 
and how are you ? ” said Sir John. Blessings on 
you as broad as your back, Harthover,” says she — 
she didn’t call him Sir John, but only Harthover, for 
that is the fashion in the North country — “and 
welcome into Vendale : but you’re no hunting the 
fox this time of the year ? ” 

“ I am hunting, and strange game, too,” said he. 

“ Blessings on your heart, and what makes you 
look so sad the morn ? ” 

“I’m looking for a lost child, a chimney-sweep, 
that is run away.” — “Oh, Harthover,” says she, 
“ ye were always a just man and a merciful ; and 
ye’ll no harm the poor little lad if I give you tidings 
of him ? ” 

“ Not I, not I, dame. I’m afraid we hunted him 
out of the house all on a miserable mistake, and the 
hound has brought him to the top of Lewthwaite 
Crag, and ” 

Whereat the hold dame broke out crying, without 
letting him finish his story. “ So he told me the 
truth after all, poor little dear ! Ah, first thoughts 
are best, and a body’s heart’ll guide them right, if 
they will but hearken to it. And then she told Sir 
John all. 

“ Bring the dog here, and lay him on,” said Sir 
John, without another word, and he set his teeth 
very hard. And the dog opened at once ; and went 
away at the back of the cottage, over the road, and 
over the meadow, and through a bit of alder copse ; 
and there, upon an alder stump, they saw Tom’s 
4 


50 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


clothes lying. And then they knew as much about 
it all as there was any need to know. 

And Tom ? Ah, now comes the most wonderful 
part of this wonderful story. Tom, when he woke, 
for of course he woke — children always wake after 
they have slept exactly as long as it is good for them 
— found himself swimming about in the stream, 
being about four inches long, and having round 
the parotid region of his fauces a set of external 
gills (I hope you understand all the big words) just 
like those of a sucking eft, which he mistook for 
a lace frill, till he pulled at them, found he hurt 
himself, and made up his mind that they were part 
of himself, and best left alone. In fact, the fairies 
had turned him into a water-baby. 

A water-baby ? You never heard of a water- 
baby ? That is the reason this story was written. 
There are a great many things in the world which 
you never heard of ; and many more which nobody 
ever heard of ; and a great many things, too, which 
nobody will ever hear of, at least until the coming 
of the Cocqcigrues, when man shall be the measure 
of all things. 

But there are no such things as water-babies.” 

How do you know that ? Have you been there to 
see ? And if you had been there to see, and had 
seen none, that would not prove that there were 
none. If Mr. Garth does not find a fox in Eversley 
Wood — as folks sometimes fear he never will — that 
does not prove that there are no such things as 
foxes. And as is Eversley Wood to all the woods 
in England, so are the waters we know to all the 
waters in the world. And no one can say that 
no water-babies exist, till they have seen no 


A FAIBV TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 51 

water-babies existing ; which is quite a different 
thing from not seeing water-babies ; and a thing 
which nobody ever did, or perhaps ever will do. 

^^But, surely, if there were water-babies, some- 
body would have caught one 
at least?” Well, how do 
you know that somebody 
has not ? 

‘^But they would have 
put it into spirits, or into the 
Illustrated News, or perhaps 
cut it into two valves, poor 
dear little thing, and sent 
one to Professor Owen and 
one to Professor Huxley, to 
see what they would each 
say about it.” Ah, my dear 
little man ! that does not 
follow at all, as you will see 
before the end of the story. 

But a water-baby is con- 
trary to nature. ” W ell, you 
must learn to talk about 
such things, when you grow 
older, in a very different 
way from that. You must not talk about ‘‘ ain’t ” 
and can’t ” when you speak of this great wonder- 
ful world round you, of which the wisest man 
knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the 
great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up 
pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean. 

No water-babies, indeed ? Why, wise men of old 
said that everything on earth had its double in the 
water ; and you may see that that is, if not quite 



52 


THE WATEB-BABIES, 


true, still quite as true as most other theories which 
you are likely to hear for many a day. There are 
land-babies — then why not water-babies ? Are there 
not water-rats, water-flies, water-crickets, water- 
crabs, water-tortoises, water-scorpions, water-tigers 
and water-hogs, water-cats and water-dogs, sea- 
lions and sea-bears, sea-horses and sea-elephants, sea- 
mice and sea-urchins, sea-razors and sea-pens, sea- 
combs and sea- fans ; and of plants, are there not 
water-grass and water-crowfoot, water-milfoil, and 
so on, without end ? 

But all these things are only nicknames; the 
water things are not really akin to the land things.” 

That’s not always true. They are, in millions of 
cases, not only of the same family, but actually the 
same individual creatures. Do not even you know 
that a green drake, and an alder-fly, and a dragon- 
fly, live under water till they change their skins, 
just as Tom changed his ? And if a water animal 
can change into a land animal, why should not a 
land animal sometimes change into a water animal ? 

Am I in earnest ? Oh, dear no ! Don’t you 
know this is a fairy tale, and all fun and pretense ; 
and that you are not to believe a word of it even if 
it is true ? 

But at all events, so it happened to Tom. And, 
therefore, the keeper, and the groom, and Sir John 
made a great mistake, and were very unhappy when 
they found a black thing in the water, and said it 
was Tom’s body, and that he had been drowned. 
They were utterly mistaken. Tom was quite alive ; 
and cleaner and merrier than he ever had been. 
The fairies had washed him, in the swift river, so 
thoroughly that not only his dirt, but his whole 


A FAIJiY TALE FOR A LANB-BABY. 53 

husk and shell, had been washed quite off him, and 
the pretty little real Tom was washed out of the 
inside of it, and swam away, as a caddis does when 
its case of stones and silk is bored through, and away 
it goes on its back, paddling to the shore, there to 
split its skin, and fly away as a caperer, on four fawn- 
colored wings, with long legs and horns. They are 
foolish fellows, the caperers, and fly into the candle 
at night, if you leave the door open. We will hope 
Tom will be wiser, now he has got safe out of his 
sooty old shell. 

But good Sir John did not understand all this, 
and he took it into his head that Tom was drowned. 
When they looked into the empty pockets of his shell, 
'and found no jewels there, nor money — nothing but 
three marbles, and a brass button with a string to 
it — then Sir John did something as like crying as 
ever he did in his life, and blamed himself more 
bitterly than he need have done. So he cried, and 
the groom-boy cried, and the huntsman cried, and 
the dame cried, and the little girl cried, and the 
dairymaid cried, and the old nurse cried (for it was 
somewhat her fault), and my lady cried ; but the 
keeper did not cry, though he had been so good- 
natured to Tom the morning before ; and Grimes 
did not cry, for Sir John gave him ten pounds, and 
he drank it all in a week. Sir John sent, far and 
wide, to find Tom’s father and mother ; but he 
might have looked till Doomsday for them, for one 
was dead, and the other was in Botany Ba}^ And 
the little girl would not play with her dolls for a 
whole week, and never forgot poor little Tom. And 
soon my lady put a pretty little tombstone over 
Tom’s shell in the little churchyard in Vendale, 


54 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


where the old dalesmen all sleep side by side between 
the limestone crags. And the dame decked it with 
garlands every Sunday, till she grew so old that she 
could not stir abroad ; then the little children 
decked it for her. And always she sang an old, old 
€ong, as she sat spinning what she called her wed- 
ding-dress. The children could not understand it, 
but they liked it none the less for that ; for it was 
very sweet, and very sad ; and that was enough for 
them. And these are the words of it : 

When all the world is young, lad, 

And all the trees are green ; 

And every goose a swan, lad. 

And every lass a queen ; 

Then hey for boot and horse, lad. 

And round the world away ; 

Young blood must have its course, lad, 

And every dog his day. 

When all the world is old, lad. 

And all the trees are brown ; 

And all the sport is stale, lad. 

And all the wheels run down ; 

Creep home, and take your place there, 

The spent and maimed among ; 

God grant you find one face there. 

You loved when all was young. 

Those are the words : but they are only the body 
of it : the soul of the song was the dear old woman’s 
sweet face, and sweet voice, and the sweet old air 
to which she sang ; and that, alas ! one cannot put 
on paper. And at last she grew so stiff and lame, 
that the angels were forced to carry her ; and they 
helped her on with her wedding-dress, and carried 




56 


THE WATEE-B ABIES. 


her up over Harthover Fells, and a long way beyond 
that, too ; and there was a new schoolmistress in 
Vendale. 

And all the while Tom was swimming about in 
the river, with a pretty little lace-collar of gills about 
his neck, as clean as a fresh-run salmon. 

Now if you don’t like my story, then go to the 
schoolroom and learn your multiplication-table, and 
see if you like that better. Some people would do 
so. So much the better for us, if not for them. It 
takes all sorts, they say, to make a world. 



CHAPTER III. 



TOM was now quite 
amphibious. You do 
not know what that 
means? You had 
better, then, ask the 
nearest teacher, who 
may possibly answer 
you smartly enough, 
t h u s — ‘‘ Amphibious. 
Adjective, derived from 
two Greek words, am- 
phi, a fish, and hios^ a 
beast. An animal sup- 
posed by our ignorant 
ancestors to be com- 
pounded of a fish and a 
beast ; which, like the 
hippopotamus, can’t 
live on the land, and 

dies in the water.” 

However that may be, Tom was amphibious : and 
he was clean. For the first time in his life, he felt 
how comfortable it was to have nothing on him but 
himself. But he only enjoyed it : he did not know 
it, or think about it ; just as you enjoy life and 
health, and yet never think about being alive and 
healthy ; and may it be long before you have to think 
about it ! 


57 


58 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


He did not remember having ever been dirty. 
Since that sweet sleep, he had forgotten all about 
his master, and Harthover Place, and the little 
white girl, and all that had happened to him when 
he lived before ; and what was best of all, he had 
forgotten all the bad words which he had learned 
from Grimes, and the rude boys with whom he 
used to play. That is not strange : for you know, 
when you came into this world, and became a land- 
baby, you remembered nothing. So why should he 
when he became a water-baby ? 

Then have you lived before ? My dear child, who 
can tell ? One can only tell that by remembering 
something which happened where we lived before ; 
and as we remember nothing, we know nothing 
about it ; and no book, and no man, can ever tell 
us certainly. 

There was a wise man once, a very wise man, and 
a very good man, who wrote a poem about the 
feelings which some children have about having 
lived before ; and this is what he said — 

“ Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 

The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, 

Hath elsewhere had its setting, 

And cometh from afar : 

Not in entire forgetfulness. 

And not in utter nakedness. 

But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home.” 

There, you can know no more than that. But if 
I were you, I would believe that. For then the 
great fairy Science, who is likely to be queen of all 
the fairies for many a year to come, can only do 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


59 


you good, and never do you harm ; and instead of 
fancying that your body makes your soul, as if a 
steam-engine could make its own coke ; or, with 
some people, that your soul has nothing to do with 
your body, but is only stuck into it like a pin into 
a pincushion, to fall out with the first shake ; — you 
wilJ believe the one true, orthodox, inductive, 
rational, deductive, philosophical, seductive, logical, 
productive, irrefragable, salutary, nominalistic, 
realistic, and on-all-accounts-to-be-receiyed doctrine 
of this wonderful fairy tale ; which is, that your soul 
makes your body, just as a snail makes his shell. 
For the rest, it is enough for us to be sure that 
whether or not we lived before, we shall live again ; 
though not, I hope, as poor little heathen Tom did. 
For he went downward into the water : but we, I 
hope, shall go upward to a very different place. 

But Tom was very happy in the water. He had 
been sadly overworked in the land- world ; and so 
now, to make up for that, he had nothing but 
holidays in the water- world for a long time to come. 
He had nothing to do now but enjoy himself, and 
look at all the pretty things which are to be seen 
in the cool clear water- world, where the sun is never 
too hot, and the frost is never too cold. 

And what did he live on ? Water-cresses, perhaps ; 
or perhaps water-gruel, and water-milk ; too many 
land-babies do so likewise. Sometimes he went 
along the smooth gravel water-ways, looking at the 
crickets which ran in and out among the stones, as 
rabbits do on land ; or he climbed over the ledges 
of rock, and saw the sand-pipes hanging in thousands, 
with every one of them a pretty little head and legs 
peeping out ; or he went into a still corner, and 


60 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


watched the caddises eating dead-sticks as greedily 
as you would eat plum -pudding, and building their 
houses with silk arid glue. Very fanciful ladies 
they were ; none of them would keep to the same 
materials for a day. One would begin with some 
pebbles ; then she would stick on a piece of green 
wood ; then she found a shell, and stuck it on, too ; 
and the poor shell was alive, and did not like at all 
being taken to build houses with : but the caddis 
did not let him have any voice in the matter, being 
rude and selfish, as vain people are apt to be ; then 
she stuck on a piece of rotten wood, then a very 
smart pink stone, and so on, till she was patched all 
over like an Irishman’s coat. Then she found a 
long straw, five times as long as herself, and said, 
‘‘Hurrah, my sister has a tail, and I’ll have one, 
too ; ” and she stuck it on her back, and marched 
about with it quite proud, though it was very incon- 
venient indeed. 

Then sometimes he came to a deep still reach ; 
and there he saw the water-forests. They would 
have looked to you only little weeds ; but Tom, you 
must remember, was so little that everything looked 
a hundred times as big to him as it does to you, just 
as things do to a minnow, who sees and catches the 
little water-creatures which you can only see in a 
microscope. 

And in the water-forest he saw the water-monkeys 
and water-squirrels (they had all six legs, though ; 
everything almost has six legs in the water, except 
efts and water-babies) ; and nimbly enough they ran 
among the branches. There were water-fiowers 
there, too, in thousands ; and Tom tried to pick 
them : but as soon as he touched them, they drew 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


61 


themselves in and turned into knots of jelly ; and 
then Tom saw that they were all alive — bells, and 
stars, and wheels, and flowers, of all beautiful shapes 
and colors ; and all alive and busy, just as Tom was. 
He found that there was a deal more in the world 
than he had fancied at first sight. 

There was one wonderful little fellow, too, who 
peeped out of the top of a house built of round 
bricks. He had two Mg wheels, and one little one, 
all over teeth, spinning round and round like the 
wheels in a thrashing-machine ; and Tom stood and 
stared at him, to see what he was going to make 
with his machinery. And what do you think he 
was doing ? Brick-making. With his two big 
wheels he swept together all the mud which floated 
in the water : all that was nice in it he put into his 
stomach and ate ; and all the mud he put into the 
little wheel on his breast, which really was a round 
hole set with teeth ; and there he spun it into a neat 
hard round brick ; and then he took it and stuck it 
on the top of his house- wall, and set to work to make 
another. Now was not he a clever little, fellow ? 

Tom thought so : but when he wanted to talk to 
him the brick-maker was much too busy to notice 
him. 

Now YOU. must know that all the things under the 
water talk ; only not such a language as ours ; but 
such as horses, and dogs, and cows, and birds talk 
to each other ; and Tom soon learned to understand 
them and talk to them ; so that he might have had 
very pleasant company if he had only been a good 
boy. But I am sorry to say, he was too like some 
other little hoys, very fond of tormenting creatures 
for mere sport. Some people say that boys cannot 


02 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


help it ; that it is nature, and only a proof that we 
are all originally descended from beasts of prey. 
But whether it is nature or not, little boys can help 
it, and must help it. For if they have naughty, 
mischievous tricks in their nature, as monkeys 
have, that is no reason why they should give way 
to those tricks like monkeys, who know no better. 
And therefore they must not torment dumb crea- 
tures ; for if they do, a certain old lady who is 
coming will surely give them exactly what they 
deserve. 

But Tom did not know that ; and he pecked and 
howked the poor water-things about sadly, till they 
were all afraid of him, and got out of his way, or 
crept into their shells ; so he had no one to speak to 
or play with. The water- fairies were sorry to see 
him so unhappy, and longed to take him, and tell 
him how naughty he was, and teach him to be good, 
and to play and romp with him too : but they had 
been forbidden to do that. Tom had to learn his 
lesson for himself by sound and sharp experience, 
as many another foolish person has to do, though 
there may be many a kind heart yearning over them 
all the while, and longing to teach them what they 
can only teach themselves. 

At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted it 
to peep out of its house : but its house-door was 
shut. He had never seen a caddis with a house-door 
before : so what must he do, the meddlesome little 
fellow, but pull it open, to see what the poor lady 
was doing inside. What a shame ! How should 
you like to have any one breaking your bedroom 
door in, to see how you looked when you were 
in bed ? So Tom broke to pieces the door, which 


A FAIHr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 63 

was the prettiest little grating of silk, stuck all over 
with shining bits of crystal ; and when he looked 
in, the caddis poked out her head, and it had turned 
into just the shape of a bird’s. But when Tom 
spoke to her she could not answer ; for her mouth 
and face were tight tied up in a new night-cap of 
neat pink skin. However, if she didn’t answer, all 
the other caddises did ; for they held up their hands 
and shrieked like the cats in Struwelpeter : “ Oh, you 
nasty, horrid boy ; there you are at it again ! And 
slie had just laid herself up for a fortnight’s sleep, 
and then she would have come out with such beau- 
tiful wings, and flown about, and laid such lots of 
eggs : and now you have broken her door, and she 
can’t mend it because her mouth is tied up for a 
fortnight, and she will die. Who sent you here to 
worry us out of our lives ? ” 

So Tom swam away. He was very much ashamed 
of himself, and felt all the naughtier ; as little boys 
do when they have done wrong and won’t say so. 

Then he came to a pool full of little trout, and 
began tormenting them, and trying to catch them : 
but they slipped through his fingers, and jumped 
clean out of water in their fright. But as Tom 
chased them, he came close to a great dark hover 
under an alder root, and out floushed a huge old 
brown trout ten times as big as he was, and ran 
right against him, and knocked all the breath out 
of his body ; and I don’t know which was the more 
frightened of the two. 

Then he went on sulky and lonely, as he deserved 
to be ; and under a bank he saw a very ugly, dirty 
creature sitting, about half as big as himself ; which 
had six legs, and a big stomach, and a most ridiculous 


64 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


head with two great eyes and a face like a donkey’s. 
“Oh,” said Tom, “you are an ugly fellow to be 
sure ! ” and began making faces at him ; and put his 
nose close to him, and hallooed at him, like a very 
rude boy. 

When, hey presto ; all the thing’s donkey-face 
came off in a moment, and out popped a long arm 
with a pair of pincers at the end of it, and caught 
Tom by the nose. It did not hurt him much ; but 
it held him quite tight. “Yah, ah ! Oh, let me 
go ! ” cried Tom. 

“ Then let me go,” said the creature. “ I want to 
be quiet. I want to split.” 

Tom promised to let him alone, and he let go. 
“ Why do you want to split ? ” said Tom. “Because 
my brothers and sisters have all split, and turned 
into beautiful creatures with wings ; and I want to 
split too. I am sure I shall split. I will split ! ” 

Tom stood still, and watched him. And he swelled 
himself, and puffed, and stretched himself out stiff, 
and at last — crack, puff, hang — he opened all down 
his back, and then up to the top of his head. 

And out of his inside came the most slender, 
elegant, soft creature, as soft and smooth as Tom : 
but very pale and weak, like a little child who has 
been ill a long time in a dark room. It moved its 
legs very feebly ; and looked about it half ashamed, 
like a girl when she goes for the first time into a 
ballroom ; and then it began walking slowly up a 
grass stem to the top of the water. Tom was so 
astonished that he never said a word : hut he stared 
with all his eyes. And he went up to the top of the 
water, too, and peeped out to see what would 
happen. 






66 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


And as the creature sat in the warm bright sun, a 
wonderful change came over it. It grew strong 
and firm ; the most lovely colors began to show on 
its body, blue and yellow and black, spots and bars 
and rings ; out of its back rose four great wings of 
bright brown gauze ; and its eyes grew so large that 
they filled all its head, and shone like ten thousand 
diamonds. ‘^Oh, you beautiful creature!” said 
Tom ; and he put out his hand to catch it. But the 
thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on 
its wings a moment, and then settled down again 
by Tom, quite fearless. 

‘‘ No ! ” it said, ‘‘ you cannot catch me. I am a 
dragon-fly now, the king of all the flies ; and I shall 
dance in the sunshine, and hawk over the river, and 
catch gnats, and have a beautiful wife like myself. 
I know what I shall do. Hurrah 1 ” And he flew 
away into the air, and began catching gnats. Oh ! 
come back, come back,” cried Tom, “you beautiful 
creature. I have no one to play with, and I am so 
lonely here. If you will but come back I will never 
try to catch you.” 

“I don’t care whether you do or not,” said the 
dragon-fly ; “ for you can’t. But when I have had 
my dinner and looked a little about this pretty place, 
I will come back, and have a little chat about all I 
have seen in my travels. Why, what a huge tree 
this is ! and what huge leaves on it 1 ” 

It was only a big dock ; but you know the dragon- 
fly had never seen any but little water-trees ; star- 
wort, and milfoil, and water-crowfoot, and such 
like ; so it did look very big to him. Besides, he was 
very short-sighted, as all dragon-flies are ; and never 
could see a yard before his nose ; any more than a 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 67 

great many other folks, who are not half as hand- 
some as he. 

The dragon-fly did come back, and chatted away 
with Tom. He was a little conceited about his flne 
colors and his large wings ; hut, you know, he had 
been a poor dirty ugly creature all his life before ; 
so there were great excuses for him. He was very 
fond of talking about all the wonderful things he 
saw in the trees and the meadows ; and Tom liked 
to listen to him, for he had forgotten all about 
them. So in a little while they became great friends. 

And I am very glad to say that Tom learned such 
a lesson that day that he did not torment creatures 
for a long time after. And then the caddises grew 
quite tame, and used to tell him strange stories 
about the way they built their houses, and changed 
their skins, and turned at last into winged flies ; 
till Tom began to long to change his skin, and have 
wings like them some day. 

And the trout and he made it up. So Tom used to 
play with them at hare and hounds, and great fun 
they had ; and he used to try to leap out of the 
water, head over heels, as they did before a shower 
came on ; but somehow he never could manage it. 
He liked most to see them rising at the flies, as they 
sailed round and round under the shadow of the 
great oak, where the beetles fell flop into the water, 
and the green caterpillars let themselves down from 
the boughs by silk ropes for no reason at all ; and 
then changed their foolish minds for no reason at all 
either ; and hauled themselves up again into the 
tree, rolling up the rope in a hall between their 
paws ; which is a very clever rope-dancer’s trick, and 
neither Blondin nor Leotard could do it : but why 


68 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


they should take so much trouble about it no one 
can tell ; for they cannot get their living, as 
Blondin and Leotard do, by trying to break their 
necks on a string. 

And very often Tom caught them just as they 
touched the water ; and caught the alder-fiies, and 
the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns and spinners, 
and gave them to his friends the trout. Perhaps 
he was not quite kind to the flies ; but one must do 
a good turn to one’s friends when one can. And at 
last he gave up catching even the flies ; for he made 
acquaintance with one by accident and found him 
a very merry little fellow. And this was the way 
it happened ; and it is all quite true. 

He was basking at the top of the water one 
hot day in July, catching duns and feeding the 
trout, when he^aw a new sort, a dark gray little fel- 
low with a brown head. He was a very little fellow, 
indeed : but he made the most of himself, as people 
ought to do. He cocked up his head, and his wings, 
and his tail, and he cocked up the two whisks at 
his tail end, and, in short, he looked the cockiest 
little man of all little men. And so he proved to 
be ; for, instead of getting away, he hopped upon 
Tom’s finger, and sat there as bold as nine tailors ; 
and he cried out in the tiniest, squeakiest little 
voice you ever heard : ‘‘Much obliged to you, in- 
deed ; but I don’t want it yet.” 

“ Want what ? ” said Tom, quite taken aback by 
his impudence. “Your leg for me to sit on. I 
must just go and see after my wife for a few min- 
utes. When I come back, I shall be glad of it, if 
you’ll be so good as to keep it sticking out just so ! ” 
and off he flew. 


A FAIBr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


69 



Tom thought him a very cool sort of personage ; 
and still more so when, in five minutes, he came 
back, and said — ^‘Ah, you were tired wafting? 
Well, your other leg 
will do as well.’’ 

And he popped him- 
self down on Tom’s 
knee, and began 
chatting away in 
his squeaking voice. 

^‘So you live under 
the water ? I lived 
there for some time ; 
and was very shabby 
and dirty. But I 
didn’t choose that 
that should last. So 
I turned respectable, 
and came up to the 
top, and put on this 
gray suit. It’s a 
very business-like 
suit, you think, 
don’t you ? ” 

‘Wery neat and 
quiet indeed,” said 
Tom. 

“Yes, one must 
he quiet, and neat, 
and respectable, and all that sort of thing for a little, 
when one becomes a family man. But I’m tired of 
it, that’s the truth. I’ve done quite enough busi- 
ness, in the last week, to last me my life. So I shall 
put on a ball dress, and go out and be a smart man, 


70 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


and see the gay world, and have a dance or two. 
Why shouldn’t one be jolly if one can ?” 

“ And what will become of your wife ?” 

‘ ‘ Oh ! she is a very plain, stupid creature, and 
that’s the truth ; and thinks about nothing but eggs. 
If she chooses to^come, why she may ; and if not, 
why I go without her ; — and here I go.” 

And, as he spoke, he turned quite pale, and then 
quite white. ‘‘Why, you’re ill !” said Tom. But 
he did not answer. “You’re dead,” said Tom, look- 
ing at him as he stood on his knee, as white as a 
ghost. “No, I ain’t ! ” answered a little squeaking 
voice over his head. “This is me up here, in my 
ball-dress ; and that’s my skin. Ha, ha ! you could 
not do such a trick as that ! ” 

And no more Tom could, nor Houdin, nor all the 
conjurers in the world. For the little rogue had 
jumped clean out of his own skin, and left it stand- 
ing on Tom’s knee, eyes, wings, legs, tail, exactly 
as if it had been alive. “Ha, ha ! ” he said, and he 
skipped up and down, never stopping an instant, 
just as if he had St. Vitus’ dance. “ Ain’t I a pretty 
fellow now ? ” And so he was ; his body was white, 
his tail orange, and his eyes all the colors of a pea- 
cock’s tail. And what was oddest of all, the whisks 
at the end of his tail had grown five times as long 
as they were before. 

“ Ah ! ” said he, “now I will see the gay world. 
My living won’t cost me much, for I have no mouth, 
you see, and no inside ; so I can never be hungry 
nor have the stomach-ache neither.” No more he 
had. He had grown as dry and hard and empty as 
a quill, as such silly, shallow-hearted fellows deserve 
to grow. 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 71 

But, instead of being ashamed of his emptiness, 
he was quite proud of it, as a good many fine gentle- 
men are, and began flirting and dipping up and 
down, and singing — 

“ My wife shall dance and I shall sing, 

So merrily pass the day ; 

For I hold it for quite the wisest thing 
To drive dull care away.” 

And he danced up and down for three days and 
three nights, till he grew so tired, that he tumbled 
into the water, and floated down. But what became 
of him Tom never knew, and he himself never 
minded ; for Tom heard him singing to the last, as 
he floated down — 

“ To drive dull care a way-ay-ay ! ” 

And if he did not care why nobody else cared, 
either. 

But one day Tom had a new adventure. He was 
sitting on a water-lily leaf, he and his friend the 
dragon-fly, watching the gnats dance. The dragon- 
fly had eaten as many as he wanted, and was sitting 
quite still and sleepy, for it was very hot and 
bright. The gnats (who did not care the least for 
their poor brother’s death) danced a foot over his 
head quite happily, and a large black fly settled 
within an inch of his nose, and began washing his 
own face and combing his hair with his paws ; but 
the dragon-fly never stirred, but chatted to Tom 
about the times when he lived under the water. 

Suddenly, Tom heard the strangest noise up the 
stream ; cooing, and grunting, and whining, and 
squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two stock- 


72 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


(loves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind 
puppy, and left them there to settle themselves and 
make music. He looked up the water, and there 
he saw a sight as strange as the noise ; a great ball 
rolling over and over down the stream, seeming one 
moment of soft brown fur, and the next of shining 
glass : and yet it was not a ball ; for sometimes it 
broke up and streamed away in pieces, and then it 
joined again ; and all the while the noise came out 
of it louder and louder. 

Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be : but 
with his short sight, he could not even see it, 
though it was not ten yards away. So he took the 
neatest little header into the water, and started off 
to see for himself ; and, when he came near, the 
ball turned out to be four or flve beautiful creatures, 
many times larger than Tom, who were swimming 
about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and 
wrestling, and cuddling, and kissing, and biting, 
and scratching, in the most charming fashion that 
ever was seen. And if you don’t believe me, you 
may go to the Zoological Gardens, and then say, if 
otters at play in the water are not the merriest, 
gracefullest creatures you ever saw. 

But, when the biggest of them saw Tom, she 
darted out from the rest, and cried in the water- 
language, sharply enough, ‘‘Quick, children, here 
is something to eat, indeed ! ” and came at poor 
Tom, showing such a wicked pair of eyes, and such 
a set of sharp teeth in a grinning mouth, that Tom, 
who had thought her very handsome, said to him- 
self, Handsome is that handsome does, and slipped 
in between the water-lily roots as fast as he could, 
and then turned and made faces at her. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 73 

“Come out,” said the wicked old otter, “or it 
will be worse for you.” But Tom looked at her 
from between two thick roots, and shook them with 
all his might, making horrible faces all the while, 
just as he used to grin through the railings at the 
old women, when he lived before. It was not quite 
well bred, but, you know, Tom had not finished his 
education yet. 



“Come, children,” said the otter in disgust, “it 
is not worth eating, after all. It is only a nasty 
eft, which nothing eats, not even those vulgar pike 
in the pond.” — I am not an eft,” said Tom ; “ efts 
have tails.” 

“You are an eft,” said the otter very politely ; 
“ I see your two hands quite plain, and I know you 
have a tail.” 

“I tell you I have not,” said Tom. “Look 


74 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


here ! ’’ and he turned his pretty little self quite 
round ; and, sure enough, he had no more tail than 
you. 

The. otter might have got out of it by saying that 
Tom was a frog : but, like other people, when she 
had once said a thing, she stood to it, right or 
wrong ; so she answered : I say you are an eft, 
and therefore you are, and not fit food for gentle- 
folk like me and my children. Y ou may stay there 
till the salmon eat you (she knew the salmon would 
not, but she wanted to frighten poor Tom). Ha ! 
ha ! they will eat you, and we will eat them ; ” and 
the otter laughed a wicked, cruel laugh. 

What are salmon V’ asked Tom. 

‘‘Fish, you eft, great fish, nice fish to eat. They 
are the lords of the fish, and we are lords of the sal- 
mon; '’and she laughed again. “ We hunt them 
up and down the pools, and drive them up into a 
corner, the silly things ; they are so proud, and 
bully the little trout, and the minnows, till they see 
us coming, and then they are so meek all at once ; 
and we catch them, but we disdain to eat them all ; 
we just bite out their soft throats and suck their 
sweet juice — Oh, so good ! ” — (and she licked her 
wicked lips) — “and then throw them away, and go 
and catch another. They are coming soon, chil- 
dren ; coming soon ; I can smell the rain coming 
up off the sea, and then hurrah for a fresh, and sal- 
mon, and plenty of eating all day long.” 

And the otter grew so proud that she turned head 
over heels twice, and then stood upright half out of 
the water, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “And 
where do they come from?” asked Tom, who kept 
himself very close, for he was considerably fright- 













76 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


ened. ‘‘Out of the sea, eft, the great wide sea, 
where they might stay and be safe if they liked. 
But out of the sea the silly things come, into the 
great river down below ; and we come up to watch 
for them : and when they go down again we go 
down and follow them. And there we fish for the 
bass and the pollock, and have jolly days along the 
shore, and roll in the breakers, and sleep snug in 
the warm, dry crags.” 

Tom could not help thinking of what the otter 
had said about the great river and the broad sea. 
And, as he thought, he longed to go and see them. 
He could not tell why ; but the more he thought, 
the more he grew discontented with the narrow 
little stream in which he lived, and all his compan- 
ions there ; and wanted to get out into the wide 
world, and enjoy all the wonderful sights of which 
he was sure it was full. 

And once he set off to go down the stream. But 
it was very low ; and when he came to the shallows 
he could not keep under water, for there was no 
water left to keep under. So the sun burned his 
back and made him sick ; and he went back again 
and lay quiet in the pool for a whole week more. 

And then, on the evening of a very hot day he saw 
a sight. He had been very stupid all day, and so had 
the trout ; for they would not move an inch to take 
a fiy, though there were thousands on the water, 
but lay dozing at the bottom under the shade of the 
stones ; and Tom lay dozing, too, and was glad to 
cuddle their smooth cool sides, fo’" the water was 
warm and unpleasant. 

But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, and 
Tom looked up and saw a blanket of black clouds 


A FAIHr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 77 

lying right across the valley above his head. He 
felt not quite frightened, hut very still ; for every- 
thing was still. There was not a whisper of wind, 
nor a chirp of a bird to be heard ; and next a few 
great drops of rain fell plop into the water, and one 
hit Tom on the nose, and made him pop his head 
down. And then the thunder roared, and the light- 
ning flashed, and leaped across Vendale and back 
again, from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, till the 
very rocks in the stream seemed to shake : and Tom 
looked up at it through the water, and thought it the 
flnest thing he ever saw in his life. 

But out of the water he dared not put his head ; 
for the rain came down by bucketsful, and the*hail 
hammered like shot on the stream, and churned it 
into foam ; and soon the stream rose, and rushed 
down, higher and higher, and fouler and fouler, 
full of beetles, and sticks ; and straws, and worms, 
and addle-eggs, and leeches, and this, that, and the 
other, enough to All nine museums. 

Tom could hardly stand against the stream, and 
hid behind a rock. But the trout did not ; for out 
they rushed from among the stones, and began gob- 
bling the beetles and leeches in the most greedy and 
quarrelsome way, and swimming about with great 
worms hanging out of their mouths, tugging and 
kicking to get them away from each other. 

And now, by the flashes of the lightning, Tom 
saw a new sight — all the bottom of the stream alive 
with great eels, turning and twisting along, all 
down stream and away. They had been hiding for 
weeks past in the cracks of the rocks, and in burrows 
in the mud ; and Tom had hardly ever seen them, 
except now and then at night : but now they were 


78 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


all out, and went hurrying past him so fiercely and 
wildly that he was quite frightened. And as they 
hurried past he could hear them say to each other, 
“We must run, we must run. What a jolly 
thunderstorm ! Down to the sea, down to the sea ! ’’ 

Then the otter came by with all her brood, sweep- 
ing along as fast as the eels themselves ; and she 
spied Tom as she came by, and said : “ Now is your 
time, eft, if you want to see the world. Come 
along, children, never mind those nasty eels : we 
shall breakfast on salmon to-morrow. Down to the 
sea, down to the sea ! ” 

Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, and 
by the light of it — in the thousandth part of a second 
they were gone again — but he had seen them, he was 
certain of it — three beautiful little white girls, with 
their arms twined round each other’s necks, floating 
down the torrent, as they sang, “ Down to the sea, 
down to the sea ! ” 

“ Oh, stay ! Wait forme ! ” cried Tom ; but they 
were gone : yet he could hear their voices clear and 
sweet through the roar of thunder and water and 
wind, singing as they died away, “ Down to the 
sea ! ” 

“ Down to the sea ? ” said Tom ; everything is 
going to the sea, and I will go too. Good-by, 
trout. ” But the trout were so busy gobbling worms 
that they never turned to answer him ; so that Tom 
was spared the pain of bidding them farewell. 

And now, down the rushing stream, guided by the 
bright flashes of the storm ; which shone out one 
moment as clear as day, and the next were dark as 
night ; past dark hovers under swirling banks, from 
which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him 


A rAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 79 

to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the 
fairies sent them home again with a tremendous 
scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby ; 
on through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, 
where Tom was deafened and blinded for a moment 
by the rushing waters ; along deep reaches, where 
the white water-lilies tossed and flapped beneath the 
wind and hail ; past sleeping villages ; under dark 
bridge-arches, and away and away to the sea. And 
Tom could not stop, and did not care to stop ; he 
would see the great world below, and the salmon, 
and the breakers, and the wide, wide sea. 

And when the daylight came, Tom found himself 
out in the salmon river. And what sort of a river 
was it ? Was it like an Irish stream, winding 
through the brown bogs, where the wild ducks 
squatter up from among the white water-lilies, and 
the curlews flit to and fro, crying, ‘‘ Tulliewheep, 
mind your sheep ; ’’ and Dennis- tells you strange 
stories of the great bogy-snake which lies in the 
black peat pools, and puts his head out at night to 
snap at the cattle as they come down to drink ? But 
you must not believe all that Dennis tells you, 
mind ; for if you ask him : Is there a salmon 
here, do you think, Dennis ? ” — Is it salmon, thin, 
your honor manes ? Salmon ? Cartloads it is of 
thim, thin, an’ ridgmens, shouldthering ache out 
of water, av’ ye’d but the luck to see thim.” 

Then you flsh the pool all over, and never get a rise. 

But there can’t be a salmon here, Dennis ! and, 
if you’ll but think, if one had come up last tide, 
he’d be gone to the higher pools by now.” 

‘‘Shure, thin, and your honor’s the thrue fisher- 
man, and understands it all like a book. Why, ye 


80 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


spake as if ye’d known the wather a thousand years ! 
As I said, how could there be a fish here at all, just 
now ? ” 

But you said just now they were shouldering 
each other out of water ? ” And then Dennis will 
look up at you with his handsome, sly, soft, sleepy, 
good-natured, Irish gray eye, and answer with a 
smile: ‘‘Shure, and didn’t I think your honor 
would like a pleasant answer ? ” 

So you must not trust Dennis, because he is in 
the habit of giving pleasant answers : but, instead 
of being angry with him, you must remember that 
he is a poor Paddy, and knows no better ; so you 
must just burst out laughing ; and then he will 
burst out laughing, too, and slave for you, and trot 
about after you, and show you good sport if he 
can — for he is an affectionate fellow, and as fond of 
sport as you are — and if he can’t, tell you fibs instead, 
a hundred an hour ; and wonder all the while why 
poor ould Ireland does not prosper like England and 
Scotland, and some other places, where folks have 
taken up a ridiculous fancy that honesty is the best 
policy. 

The salmon stream at Harthover was such a stream 
as you see in dear old Bewick ; Bewick who was born 
and bred upon them. A full hundred yards broad 
it was, sliding on from broad pool to broad shallow, 
over great fields of shingle, under oak and ash 
coverts, past low cliffs of sandstone, past green 
meadows, and fair parks, and a great house of gray 
stone, and brown moors above, and here and there 
against the sky the smoking chimney of a colliery. 
You must look at Bewick to see just what it was 
like, for he has drawn it a hundred times with the 

















82 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


care and the love of a true north countryman ; and, 
even if you do not care about the salmon river, you 
ought, like all good boys, to know your Bewick. 

At least, so old Sir John used to say, and very 
sensibly he put it too, as he was wont to do : “If 
they want to describe a finished young gentleman 
in France, I hear, they say of him, sait son 
Babeldis. ’ But if I want to describe one in England, 
I say, ‘ He knows his Bewick.^ And I think that is 
the higher compliment.’’ 

But Tom thought nothing about what the river 
was like. All his fancy was to get down to the 
wide, wide sea. And after a while he came to a 
place where the river spread out into broad still 
shallow reaches, so wide that little Tom, as he put 
his head out of the water, could hardly see across. 
And there he stopped. He got a little frightened. 
“This must be the sea,” he thought. “What a 
wide place it is ! If I go on into it I shall surely 
lose my way, or some strange thing will bite me. I 
will stop here, and look out for the otter, or the eels, 
or some one to tell me where I shall go.” 

So he went back a little way, and crept into a 
crack of the rock, just where the river opened out 
into the wide shallows, and watched for some one 
to tell him his way ; but the otter and the eels were 
gone on miles and miles down the stream. 

There he waited, and slept, too, for he was quite 
tired with his night’s journey ; and, when he 
woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful amber 
hue, though it was still very high. And after a 
while he saw a sight which made him jump up ; for 
he knew in a moment that it was one of the things 
which he had come to look for. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LANB-BABY. 83 

Such a fish ; ten times as big as the biggest trout, 
and a hundred times as big as Tom, sculling up 
the stream past him, as easily as Tom had sculled 
down. 

Such a fish ! shining silver from head to tail, and 
here and there a crimson dot ; with a grand hooked 
nose and grand curling lip, and a grand bright eye, 
looking round him as proudly as a king, and sur- 
veying the water right and left as if all belonged to 
him. Surely he must be the salmon, the king of 
all the fish. 

Tom was so frightened that he longed to creep 
into a hole ; but he need not have been ; for Salmon 
are all like true gentlemen ; they never harm or 
quarrel with any one, but go about their own busi- 
ness, and leave rude fellows to themselves. 

The salmon looked at him full in the face, and 
then went on without minding him, with a swish 
or two of his tail, which made the stream boil 
again. And in a few minutes came another, and 
then four or five, and so on ; and all passed Tom, 
plunging up the cataract with strong strokes of their 
silver tails, now and then leaping out of water 
and up over a rock, shining gloriously for a moment 
in the bright sun ; while Tom was so delighted that 
he could have watched them all day long. 

And at last one came up bigger than all the rest ; 
but he came slowly, and stopped, and looked back, 
and seemed very anxious and busy. And Tom saw 
that he was helping another salmon, who had not a 
single spot upon it, but was clothed in pure silver 
from nose to tail. My dear,” said the great fish 
to his companion, ‘^you really look dreadfully tired, 
and you must not over-exert yourself at first. Do 


84 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


rest yourself behind this rock ; ” and he shoved her 
gently with his nose, to the rock where Tom sat. 

You must know that this was the salmon’s wife. 
For salmon, like other true gentlemen, always 
choose their lady, and love her, and are true to her, 
and take care of her, and work for her, and fight 
for her, as every true gentleman ought ; and are 
not like vulgar chub and roach and pike, who have 
no high feelings, and take no care of their wives. 

Then he saw Tom, and looked at him very 
fiercely one moment, as if he was going to bite him. 

What do you want here?” he said, very fiercely. 

Oh, don’t hurt me ! ” cried Tom. I only want 
to look at jovi ; you are so handsome.” 

“Ah?” said the salmon, very stately but very 
civilly. “I really beg your pardon; I see what 
you are, my little dear. I have met one or two 
creatures like you before, and found them very 
agreeable and well-behaved. Indeed, one of them 
showed me a great kindness lately, which I hope to 
be able to repay. I hope we shall not be in your 
way here. As soon as this lady is rested, we shall 
proceed on our journey.” 

What a well-bred old salmon he was ! 

“ So you have seen things like me before ? ” asked 
Tom. “Several times, my dear. Indeed, it was 
only last night that one at the river’s mouth came 
and warned me and my wife of some new stake- 
nets which had got into the stream, and showed us 
the way round them, in the most charmingly oblig- 
ing way.” 

“ So there are babies in the sea ? ” cried Tom, and 
clapped his little hands. “ Then I shall have some 
one to play with there ? How delightful ! ” 



86 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


‘‘ Were there no babies up this stream ? ” asked 
the lady salmon. '‘No! And I grew so lonely. I 
thought I saw three last night ; but they were gone 
in an instant, down to the sea. So I went, too ; for 
I had nothing to play with but caddises and dragon- 
flies and trout.” 

“ Ugh !” cried the lady, “what low company !” 

“ My dear, if he has been in low company, he has 
certainly not learned their low manners,” said the 
salmon. 



“No, poor little dear: but how sad for him to 
live among such people as caddises, who have actu- 
ally six legs, the nasty things ; and dragon-flies, 
too ! why, they are not even good to eat ; for I tried 
them once, and they are all hard and empty ; and, 
as for trout, every one knows what they are.” 
Whereon she curled up her lip, and looked scornful, 
while her husband curled up his, too ; till he looked 
as proud as Alcibiades. 

“ Why do you dislike the trout so ?” asked Tom. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAUD-BABY. 87 

My dear, we do not even mention them, if we 
can help it ; for I am sorry to say they are relations 
of ours who do us no credit. A great many years 
ago they were just like us ; but they were so lazy, 
and cowardly, and greedy, that instead of going 
down to the sea every year to see the world and 
grow strong and fat, they chose to stay and poke 
about in the little streams and eat worms and 
grubs ; and they are very properly punished for it ; 
for they have grown ugly and brown and spotted 
and small ; and are actually so degraded in their 
tastes that they will eat our children.” 

‘‘And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance 
with us again,” said the lady. “Why, I have 
actually known one of them to propose to a lady 
salmon, the little impudent creature.” 

“I should hope,” said the gentleman, “ that there 
are very few ladies of our race who would degrade 
themselves by listening to such a creature for an 
instant. If I saw such a thing happen, I should 
consider it my duty to put them both to death upon 
the spot.” So the old salmon said, like an old blue- 
blooded hidalgo of Spain ; and what is more, he 
would have done it too. For you must know, no 
enemies are so bitter against each other as those 
who are of the same race ; and a salmon looks on a 
trout, as some great folks look on some little folks, 
as something just too much like himself to be 
tolerated. 


^8 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


CHAPTEE IV. 



the salmon went up, 
after Tom had 
warned them of 
the wicked old 
otter, and Tom 
went down ; hut 
slowly and cau- 
tiously, coasting 
along the shore. He 
was many days about 
it, for it was many 
miles down to the sea ; 
and perhaps he would 
never have found his 
way if the fairies had 
not guided him, without 
his seeing their fair faces or feeling their gentle 
hands. 

And, as he went, he had a very strange adventure. 
It was a clear still September night, and the moon 
shone so brightly down through the water that he 


A FAIRY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 89 

could not sleep, though he shut his eyes as tight as 
possible. So at last he came up to the top, and sat 
upon a little point of rock, and looked up at the 
broad yellow moon, and wondered what she was, 
and thought that she looked at him. And he 
watched the moonlight on the rippling river, and 
the black heads of the firs, and the silver-frosted 
lawns, and listened to the owl’s hoot, and the snipe’s 
bleat, and the fox’s hark, and the otter’s laugh ; 
and smelt the soft perfume of the birches, and the 
wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor far 
above.; and felt very happy, though he could not 
well tell why. You, of course, would have been 
very cold sitting there on a September night, 
without the least bit of clothes on your wet back ; 
but Tom was a water-baby, and therefore felt cold 
no more than a fish. 

Suddenly, he saw a beautiful sight. A bright red 
light moved along the river-side, and threw down 
into the water a long tap-root of flame. Tom, 
curious little rogue that he was, must needs go and 
see what it was ; so he swam to the shore, and met 
the light as it stopped over a shallow run at the 
edge of a low rock. And there, underneath the 
light, lay five or six great salmon, looking up at the 
flame with their great goggle eyes, and wagging 
their tails, as if they were very much pleased at it. 
Tom came to the top, to look at this wonderful light 
nearer, and made a splash. 

And he heard a voice say: There was a fish 

rose.” 

He did not know what the words meant: but 
he seemed to know the sound of them, and to 
know the voice which spoke them ; and he saw on 


90 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


the bank three great two-legged creatures, one of 
whom held the light, flaring and sputtering, and 
another a long pole. And he knew that they were 
men, and was frightened, and crept into a hole in 
the rock, from which he could see what went on. 

The man with the torch bent down over the water, 
looked earnestly in, and said: “Tak’that muckle 
fellow, lad ; he’s ower fifteen punds ; and hand 
your hand steady.” Tom felt that there was danger 
coming, and longed to warn the foolish salmon, 
who kept staring up at the light as if bewitched. 
Before he could make up his mind down came the 
pole through the water ; there was a fearful splash 
and struggle, and Tom saw that the poor salmon 
was speared right through, and was lifted out of the 
water. 

And then, from behind, there sprang on these 
three men three other men ; and there were shouts, 
and blows, and words which Tom recollected to 
have heard before ; and he shuddered and turned 
sick at them now, for he felt somehow that they 
were strange, and ugly, and wrong, and horrible. 
And it all began to come back to him. They were 
men ; and they were fighting ; savage, desperate, 
up-and-down fighting, such as Tom had seen too 
many times before. 

And he stopped his little ears, and longed to swim 
away ; and was very glad that he was a water-baby, 
and had nothing to do any more with horrid dirty 
men, with foul clothes on their backs, and foul 
words on their lips ; but he dared not stir out of his 
hole : while the rock shook over his head with the 
trampling and struggling of the keepers and the 
poachers. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 91 

All of a sudden there was a tremendous splash, 
and a frightful flash, and a hissing, and all was still. 
For into the water, close to Tom, fell one of the 
men ; he who held the light in his hand. Into the 
swift river he sank, and rolled over and over in the 
current. Tom heard the men above run along, 
seemingly looking for him ; but he drifted down 
into the deep hole below, and there lay quite still, 
and they could not And him. 

Tom waited a long time, till all was quiet ; and 
then he peeped out, and saw the man lying. At 
last he screwed up his courage and swam down to 
him. ‘‘Perhaps,” he thought, “the water has 
made him fall asleep, as it did me.” Then he went 
nearer. He grew more and more curious, he could 
not tell why. He must go and look at him. He 
would go very quietly, of course ; so he swam round 
and round him, closer and closer ; and, as he did not 
stir, at last he came quite close and looked him in 
the face. 

The moon shone so bright that Tom could see 
every feature ; and, as he saw, he recollected, bit 
by bit, it was his old master. Grimes. Tom turned 
tail, and swam away as fast as he could. “Oh, 
dear me ! ” he thought, “now he will turn into a 
water-baby. What a nasty, troublesome one he 
will be ! And perhaps he will And me out, and beat 
me again.” 

So he went up the river again a little way, and lay 
there the rest of the night under an alder root ; but, 
when morning came, he longed to go down again 
to the big pool, and see whether Grimes had turned 
into a water-baby yet. 

So he went very carefully, peeping round all the 


92 


THE WATEB-B ABIES. 


rocks, and hiding under all the roots. Grimes lay 
there still ; he had not turned into a water- baby. 
In the afternoon Tom went back again. He could 
not rest till he had found out what had become of 
Grimes. But this time Grimes was gone ; and Tom 
made up his mind that he was turned into a water- 
baby. 

He might have made himself easy, poor little 
man ; Grimes did not turn into a water-baby, or 
anything like one at all. But he did not make him- 
self easy ; and a long time he was fearful lest he 
should meet Grimes suddenly in some deep pool. 
He could not know that the fairies had carried him 
away, and put him, where they put everything 
which falls into the water, exactly where it ought 
to be. But, what had happened to Grimes had such 
an effect on him that he never poached salmon any 
more. 

Then Tom went on down, for he was afraid of 
staying near Grimes : and as he went, all the vale 
looked sad. The red and yellow leaves showered 
down into the river ; the flies and beetles were all 
dead and gone ; the chill autumn fog lay low upon 
the hills, and sometimes spread itself so thickly on 
the river that he could not see his way. But he felt 
his way instead, following the flow of the stream, 
day after day, past great bridges, past boats and 
barges, past the great town, with its wharfs, and 
mills, and tall smoking chimneys, and ships which 
rode at anchor in the stream ; and now and then he 
ran against their hawsers, and wondered what they 
were, and peeped out, and saw the sailors lounging 
on board smoking their pipes ; and ducked under 
again, for he was terribly afraid of being caught by 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 9S> 

man and turned into a chimney-sweep once more. 
He did not know that the fairies were close to him 
always, shutting the sailors’ eyes lest they should 
see him, and turning him aside from millraces, and 
sewer-mouths, and all foul and dangerous things. 
Poor little fellow, it was a dreary journey for him ; 
and more than once he longed to be back in Ven- 
dale, playing with the trout in the bright summer 
sun. But it could 
not he. What 
has been once 
can never come 
over again. And 
people can he 
little babies, even 
water-babies, 
only once in their 
lives. 

Besides, people 
who make up 
their minds to 
go and see the 
world, as Tom 
did, must needs 
find it a weary 
journey. Lucky for them if they do not lose heart 
and stop half-way, instead of going on bravely to 
the end as Tom did. For then they will remain 
neither boys nor men, neither fish, flesh, nor good 
red-herring ; having learned a great deal too much, 
and yet not enough ; and sown their wild oats, 
without having the advantage of reaping them. 

But Tom was always a brave, determined little 
English bull-dog who never knew when he was. 



u 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


l^eaten ; and on and on he held, till he saw a long 
way off the red buoy through the fog. And then 
he "found, to his surprise, the stream turned round, 
and running up inland. 

It was the tide, of course : but Tom knew nothing 
of the tide. He only knew that in a minute more 
the water, which had been fresh, turned salt all 
round him. And then there came a change over 
him. He felt as strong, and light, and fresh as if 
his veins had run champagne ; and gave three skips 
out of the water, a yard high, and head over heels, 
just as the salmon do when they first touch the 
noble rich salt water, which, as some wise men tell 
us, is the mother of all living things. 

He did not care now for the tide being against 
him. The red buoy was in sight, dancing in the 
open sea ; and to the buoy he went. He passed 
great shoals of bass and mullet, leaping and rush- 
ing in after the shrimps, but he never heeded them 
or they him ; and once he passed a great black shin- 
ing seal, who was coming in after the mullet. The 
seal put his head and shoulders out of water, and 
stared at him, looking exactly like a fat old greasy 
negro with a gray pate. And Tom, instead of being 
frightened, said, “ How d’ye do, sir ? what a beauti- 
ful place the sea is ! ” And the old seal, instead of 
trying to bite him, looked at him with his soft sleepy 
winking eyes, and said, ‘ ‘ Good tide to you, my little 
man ; are you looking for your brothers and sisters ? 
I passed them all at play outside.” 

Oh, then,” said Tom, I shall have playfellows 
at last,” and he swam on to the buoy, and got upon 
it and sat there and looked round for water-babies ; 
hut there were none to be seen. 








96 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


The sea-breeze came in freshly with the tide and 
blew the fog away ; and the little waves danced for 
joy around the buoy, and the old buoy danced with 
them. And the terns hovered over Tom like huge 
white dragon-flies with black heads, and the gulls 
laughed like girls at play, and the sea-pies, with 
their red bills and legs, flew to and fro from shore 
to shore, and whistled sweet and wild. And Tom 
looked and listened ; and he would have been very 
happy, if he could only have seen the water-babies. 
Then, when the tide turned, he left the buoy, and 
swam round and round in search of them : but in 
vain. Sometimes he thought he heard them laugh- 
ing, but it was only the laughter of the ripples. 
And sometimes he thought he saw them at the bot- 
tom : but it was only white and pink shells. And 
once he was sure he had found one, for he saw two 
bright eyes peeping out of the sand. So he dived 
down, and began scraping the sand away, and cried, 
“ Don’t hide ; I do want some oue to play with so 
much ! ” And out jumped a great turbot with his 
ugly eyes and mouth all awry, and flopped away 
along the bottom, knocking poor Tom over. And 
he sat down at the bottom of the sea, and cried salt 
tears from sheer disappointment. 

To have come all this way, and faced so many 
dangers, and yet to And no water-babies ! How 
hard ! W ell, it did seem hard : but people, even 
little babies, cannot have all they want without 
waiting for it, and working for it, too, my little 
man, as you will And out some day. 

And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long 
weeks, looking out to sea, and wondering when the 
water-babies would come back ; and yet they never 
came. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 97 

Then he began to ask all the strange things which 
came in out of the sea if they had seen any ; and 
some said “ Yes,” and some said nothing at all. He 
asked the bass and the pollock ; but they were so 
greedy after the shrimps that they did not care to 
answer him a word. 

Then there came in a whole fleet of purple sea- 
snails, floating along, each on a sponge full of foam, 
and Tom said, Where do you come from, you 
pretty creatures ? and have you seen the water- 
babies ? ” 

And the sea-snails answered, ‘‘ Whence we come 
we know not ; and whither we are going, who can 
tell? We float out our life in the mid-ocean, with 
the warm sunshine above our heads, and the warm 
gulf-stream below. Yes ; perhaps we have seen the 
water-babies. We have seen many strange things 
as we sailed along.” And they floated away, the 
happy stupid things, and all went ashore upon the 
sands. 

Then there came in a great lazy sunfish, as big as 
a fat pig cut in half ; and he seemed to have been 
cut in half, too, and squeezed in a clothes-press till 
he was flat ; but to all his big body and big fins he 
had only a little rabbit’s mouth, no bigger than 
Tom’s ; and, when Tom questioned him, he an- 
swered in a little squeaky feeble voice : I’m sure 

I don’t know ; I’ve lost my way. I meant to go to 
the Chesapeake, and I’m afraid I’ve got wrong 
somehow. Dear me ! it was all by following that 
pleasant warm water. I’m sure I’ve lost my way.” 
And, when Tom asked him again, he could only an- 
swer, ‘ ^ I’ve lost my way. Don’t talk to me. I want 
to think, ” 


98 


THE WATER BABIES. 


Then there came by a shoal of porpoises, rolling 
as they went — papas, and mamas, and little chil- 
dren — and all quite smooth and shiny, because the 
fairies French-polish them every morning ; and they 
sighed so softly as they came by that Tom took 
courage to speak to them ; but all they answered 
was, ‘ ‘ Hush, hush, hush ; ” for that was all they 
had learned to say. 

And then there came a shoal of basking sharks, 
some of them as long as a boat, and Tom was 
frightened at them. But they were very lazy, good- 
natured fellows, not greedy tyrants like white 
sharks and blue sharks and ground sharks and ham- 
mer-heads, who eat men, or saw-fish and thresh- 
ers and ice-sharks, who hunt the poor old whales. 
They came and rubbed their great sides against the 
buoy, and lay basking in the sun with their backfins 
out of water ; and winked at Tom : but he never 
could get them to speak. They had eaten so many 
herrings that they were quite stupid ; and Tom was 
glad when a brig came and frightened them away ; 
for they did smell most horribly, certainly, and he 
had to hold his nose tight as long as they were 
there. 

And then there came by a beautiful creature, like 
a ribbon of pure silver, with a sharp head and very 
long teeth ; but it seemed very sick and sad. Some- 
times it rolled helpless on its side ; and then it dashed 
away, glittering like white fire ; and then it lay 
sick again and motionless. ‘‘Where do you come 
from?” asked Tom. “And why are you so sick 
and sad ? ” 

“I come from the warm Carolinas and the sand- 
banks fringed with pines ; where the. great owl-rays 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 99 

leap and flap, like giant bats, upon the tide. But I 
wandered north and north, upon the treacherous 
warm gulf-stream, till I met with the cold icebergs, 
afloat in the mid-ocean. So I got tangled among 
the icebergs, and chilled with their frozen breath. 
But the water-babies helped me from among them, 
and set me free again. And now I am mending 
every day ; but I am very sick and sad ; and perhaps 
I shall never get home again to play with the owl- 
rays any more.” 

‘‘Oh !” cried Tom. “ And you have seen water- 
babies ? Have you seen any near here ? ” 

“Yes; they helped me again last night, or I 
should have been eaten by a great black porpoise.” 

How vexatious ! The water-babies close to him, 
and yet he could not find one. And then he left the 
buoy, and used to go along the sands and round the 
rocks, and come out in the night and sit upon a 
point of rock, among the shining sea-weeds, and cry 
and call for the water-babies ; but he never heard a 
voice call in return. And at last, with his fretting 
and crying, he grew quite lean and thin. 

But one day among the rocks he found a playfel- 
low. It was not a water-baby, alas ! but it was a 
lobster ; and a very distinguished lobster he was ; 
for he had live barnacles on his claws, which is a 
mark of distinction in lobsterdom, and no more to 
be bought for money than a good conscience or the 
Victoria Cross. 

Tom had never seen a lobster before ; and he was 
mightily taken with this one ; for he thought him 
the most curious, odd, ridiculous creature he had 
ever seen ; and there he' was not far wrong ; for all 
the ingenious men, and all the scientific men, and 




100 


THE WATEE-BABIES, 


all the fanciful men, in the world, with all the old 
German bogy-painters into the bargain, could never 
invent, if all their wits were boiled into one, any- 
thing so curious as a lobster. 

He had one claw knobbed and the other jagged ; 
and Tom delighted in watching him hold on to the 
seaweed with his knobbed claw, while he cut up 
salads with his jagged one, and then put them into 
his mouth, after smelling at them, like a monkey. 
And always the little barnacles threw out their 
casting-nets and swept the water, and came in for 
their share of whatever there was for dinner. But 
Tom was most astonished to see how he fired him- 
self off — snap ! like the leap-frogs which you make 
out of a goose’s breast-bone. Certainly he took the 
most wonderful shots, and backwards, too. For, if 
he wanted to go into a narrow crack ten yards off, 
what do you think he did ? If he had gone in head- 
foremost, of course he could not have turned round. 
So he used to turn his tail to it, and lay his long 
horns, which carry his sixth sense in their tips (and 
nobody knows what that sixth sense is), straight 
down his back to guide him, and twist his eyes back 
till they almost came out of their sockets, and then 
made ready, present, fire, snap ! — and away he 
went, pop into the hole ; and peeped out and twid- 
dled his whiskers, as much as to say, “You couldn’t 
do that.” 

Tom asked him about water-babies. “Yes,” he 
said. He had seen them often. They were meddle- 
some little creatures, that went about helping fish 
and shells which got into scrapes. Well, for his 
part, he should be ashamed to be helped by little 
soft creatures that had not even a shell on their 




102 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


backs. He had lived quite long enough in the world 
to take care of himself. 

He was a conceited fellow, the old lobster, and 
not very civil to Tom ; and you will hear how he 
had to alter his mind before he was done, as con- 
ceited people generally have. But he was so funn3% 
and Tom so lonely, that he could not quarrel with 
him ; and the}" used to sit in holes in the rocks, 
and chat for hours. 

And about this time there happened to Tom a 
very strange adventure — so important, indeed, that 
he was very near never finding the water-babies at 
all ; and I am sure you would have been sorry for 
that. 

I hope that you have not forgotten the little 
white lady all this while. At least, here she comes, 
looking like a clean white good little darling, as 
she always was, and always will be. For it befell 
in the pleasant short December days, when the wind 
always blows from the southwest, till Old Father 
Christmas comes and spreads the great white table- 
cloth, ready for little boys and girls to give the birds 
their Christmas dinner of crumbs — it befell (to go 
on) in the pleasant December days, that Sir John 
was so busy hunting that nobody at home could get 
a word out of him. 

It befell that Sir John, hunting all day, and din- 
ing at five, fell asleep every evening, and snored so 
terribly that all the windows in Harthover shook, 
and the soot fell down the chimneys. Whereon 
My Lad}", being no more able to get conversation 
out of him than a song out of a dead nightingale, 
determined to go off and leave him, and the doctor, 
and Captain Swinger the agent, to snore in concert 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 


103 


every evening to their hearts’ content. So she 
started for the seaside with all the children, in 
order to put herself and them into condition by mild 
applications of iodine. She might as well have 
stayed at home and used Parry’s liquid horse-blister, 
for there was plenty of it in the stables ; and then 
she would have saved her money, and saved the 



chance, also, of making all the children ill instead 
of well (as hundreds are made), by taking them to 
some nasty-smelling undrained lodging, and then 
wondering how they caught scarlatina and diphthe- 
ria ; but people won’t be wise enough to understand 
that till they are dead of bad smells, and then it 
will be too late. 

But where she went to nobody must know, for 


104 


THE WATEE-B ABIES, 


fear young ladies should begin to fancy that there 
are water-babies there ! and so hunt after them, 
and keep them in aquariums, as the ladies at 
Pompeii (as you may see by the paintings) used to 
keep Cupids in cages. But nobody ever heard that 
they starved the Cupids, or let them die of dirt and 
neglect, as English young ladies do by the poor sea- 
beasts. So nobody must know where My Lady 
went. Letting water-babies die is as bad as taking 
singing-birds’ eggs ; for, though there are thou- 
sands, aye, millions, of both of them in the world, 
yet there is not one too many. 

Now it befell that, on the very shore, and over the 
very rocks, where Tom was sitting with his friend 
the lobster, there walked one day the little white 
lady, Ellie herself, and with her a very wise man 
indeed — Professor Ptthmllnsprts. His mother was 
a Dutchwoman, and therefore he was born at Cura- 
sao (of course you have learnt your geography, and 
therefore know why) ; and his father a Pole, and 
therefore he was brought up at Petropaulowski (of 
course you have learnt your modern politics, and 
therefore know why) : but for all that he was as 
thorough an Englishman as ever coveted his neigh- 
bor’s goods. And his name, as I said, was Professor 
Ptthmllnsprts, which is a very ancient and noble 
Polish name. 

He was a great naturalist, and chief professor of 
Necrobioneopalceonthydrochthonanthropopithekol- 
ogy in the new university which the king of the 
Cannibal Islands had founded ; and, being a mem- 
ber of the Acclimatization Society, he had come 
here to collect all the nasty things which he could 
find on the coast of England, and turn them loose 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABT. 105 

round the Cannibal Islands, because they bad not 
nasty things enough there to eat what they left. 

But he w^as a very worthy, kind, good-natured 
little old gentleman ; and very fond of children (for 



he was not the least a cannibal himself) ; and very 
good to all the world as long as it was good to him. 
Only one fault he had, which cock-robins have like- 
wise, as you may see if you look out of the nurser}’' 
window — that, when any one else found a curious 


106 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


worm, he would hop round them, and peck them, 
and set up his tail, and bristle up his feathers, just 
as a cock- robin would ; and declare that he found 
the worm first ; and that it was his worm ; and, if 
not, that then it was not a worm at all. 

He had met Sir John somewhere or other and had 
made acquaintance with him, and become very fond 
of his children. Now, Sir John knew nothing about 
sea- cocky oly birds, and cared less, provided the fish- 
monger sent him good fish for dinner ; and My Lady 
knew as little : but she thought it proper that the 
children should know something. For in the stupid 
old times, you must understand, children were 
taught to know one thing, and to know it well ; but 
in these enlightened new times they are taught to 
know a little about everything, and to know it all 
ill ; which is a great deal pleasanter and easier, and 
therefore quite right. 

So Ellie and he were walking on the rocks, and he 
was showing her about one in ten thousand of all 
the curious things which are to be seen there. But 
little Ellie was not satisfied with them at all. She 
liked much better to play with live children, or even 
with dolls, which she could pretend were alive ; and 
at last she said honestly, “I don’t care about all 
these things, because they can’t play with me, or 
talk to me. If there were little children now in the 
water, as there used to be, and I could see them, I 
should like that.” 

‘^Children in the water, you strange little duck ? ” 
said the professor. ‘^Yes,” said Ellie. know 
there used to be children in the water, and mermaids 
too, and mermen. I saw them all in a picture at 
home, of a beautiful lady sailing in a car drawn by 



/ 





108 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


dolphins, and babies flying round her, and one 
sitting in her lap ; and the mermaids swimming and 
playing, and the mermen trumpeting on conch- 
shells ; and it is called ‘ The Triumph of Galatea ; ’ 
and there is a burning mountain in the picture 
behind. It hangs on the great staircase, and I have 
looked at it ever since I was a baby, and dreamt 
about it a hundred times ; and it is so beautiful that 
it must he true.” 

But the professor had not the least notion of 
allowing that things were true, merely because 
people thought them beautiful. He went further, 
and held that no man was forced to believe anything 
to be true but what he could see, hear, taste or 
handle. 

He held very strange theories about a good many 
things. He had even got up once at the British 
Association, and declared that apes had hippopot- 
amus majors in their brains just as men have. 
Which was a shocking thing to say ; for, if it were 
so, what would become of the faith, hope, and charity 
of immortal millions ? You may think that there 
are other more important differences between you 
and an ape, such as being able to speak, and make 
machines, and know right from wrong, and say 
your prayers, and other little matters of that kind ; 
but that is a child’s fancy, my dear. Nothing is to 
he depended on hut the great hippopotamus test. 
If you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, 
you are no ape, though you had four hands, no feet, 
and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. 
But if a hippopotamus major is ever discovered in 
one single ape’s brain, nothing will save your great- 
great-greater-greatest-grandmother from having 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 109 

been an ape too. No, my dear little man ; always 
remember that the one true, and all-important, 
difference between you and an ape is that you have 
a hippopotamus major in your brain, and it has 
none ; and that, therefore, to discover one in its 
brain will be a very wrong and dangerous thing, at 
which every one will be very much shocked, as we 
may suppose they were at the professor. 

But the professor had gone, I am sorry to say, 
even further than that ; for he had read at the 
British Association at Melbourne, Australia, in the 
year 1999, a paper which assured every one who 
found himself the better or wiser for the news, 
that there were not, never had been, and could not 
be, any rational or half-rational beings except men 
anywhere, anywhen, or anyhow ; that nymphs, 
satyrs, fauns, inui, dwarfs, trolls, elves, gnomes, 
fairies, brownies, nixes, wilis, kobolds, leprechaunes, 
cluricaunes, banshees, will-o’-the-wisps, follets, 
lutins, magots, goblins, afrits, marids, jinns, ghouls, 
peris, deevs, angels, archangels, imps, bogies, or 
worse, were nothing at all, and pure bosh and 
wind. And he had to get up very early in the 
morning to prove that, and to eat his breakfast 
overnight ; but he did it, at least to his own satisfac- 
tion. Whereon a certain great divine called him 
a regular Sadducee ; and probably he was quite right. 
Whereon the professor, in return, called him a 
regular Pharisee ; and probably he was quite right, 
too. But they did not quarrel in the least ; for, 
when men are men of the world, hard words run 
off them like water off a duck’s back. So the pro- 
fessor and the divine met at dinner that evening, 
and talked over the state of female labor on the 


110 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


antarctic continent (for nobody talks shop after his 
claret), and each vowed that the other was the best 
company he ever met in his life. What an advan- 
tage it is to be men of the world ! 

From all which you may guess that the professor 
was not the least of little Elbe’s opinion. So he 
gave her a succinct compendium of his famous paper 
at the British Association, in a form suited for the 
youthful mind. But, as we have gone over his 
arguments against water-babies once already, we 
will not repeat them here. 

Now little Ellie was, I suppose, a stupid little 
girl ; for, instead of being convinced by Professor 
Ptthmllnsprts’ arguments, she only asked the same 
question over again. ‘‘But why are there not 
water-babies ? ” 

I trust that it was because the professor trod at 
that moment on the edge of a very sharp mussel, 
and hurt one of his corns sadly, that he answered 
quite sharply, forgetting that he was a scientific 
man, and therefore ought to have known that he 
couldn’t know ; and that he was a logician, and 
therefore ought to have known that he could not 
prove a universal negative — I say, I trust it was 
because the mussel hurt his corn that the professor 
answered quite sharply : “ Because there ain’t.” 

Which was not even good English, my dear little 
boy ; for, as you must know from Aunt Agitato’s 
Arguments, the professor ought to have said, if he 
was so angry as to say anything of the kind — 
Because there are not : or are none : or are none of 
them : or (if he had been reading Aunt Agitate too) 
because they do not exist. 

And he groped with his net under the weeds so 


A FAIBT TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. HI 

violently that, as it befell, he caught poor little 
Tom. 

He felt the net very heavy ; and lifted it out 
quickly, with Tom all entangled in the meshes. 
“Dear me!” he cried. “What a large pink 
Holothurian ; what hands, too 1 It must be con- 
nected with Synapta.” And he took him out. “ It 
has actually eyes ! ” he cried. “ Why, it must be a 
Cephalopod 1 This is most extraordinary ! ” 

“No, I ain’t ! ” cried Tom, as loud as he could ; 
for he did not like to be called bad names. 

“ It is a water-baby ! ” cried Ellie ; and of course 
it was. “Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!” said the 
professor ; and he turned away sharply. There 
was no denying it. It was a water-baby : and lie 
had said a moment ago that there were none. What 
was he to do ? 

He would have liked, of course, to have taken 
Tom home in a bucket. He would not have put 
him in spirits. Of course not. He would have 
kept him alive, and petted him, and written a book 
about him, and given him two long names, of which 
the first would have said a little about Tom, and the 
second all about himself ; for of course he would 
have called him Hydrotecnon Ptthmllnsprtsianum, 
or some other long name like that ; for they are 
forced to call everything by long names now, 
because they have used up all the short ones, ever 
since they took to making nine species out of one. 
But — what would all the learned men say to him 
after his speech at the British Association ? And 
what would Ellie say, after what he had just told 
her ? 

There was a wise old heathen once, who said, 


112 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Maxima debetur pueris reverentia ’’ — The greatest 
reverence is due to children ; that is, that grown 
people should never say or do anything wrong before 
children, lest they should set them a bad example. 
Cousin Cramchild says it means, ‘‘The greatest 
respectfulness is expected from little boys.” But 
he was raised in a country where little boys are not 
expected to be respectful, because all of them are as 
good as the President : — Well, every one knows his 
own concerns best ; so perhaps they are. But some 
people, and I am afraid the professor was one of 
them, interpret that in a more strange, curious, 
one-sided, topsy-turvy, inside out, behind-before 
fashion than even Cousin Cramchild ; for they make 
it mean that you must show your respect for 
children by never confessing yourself in the wrong 
to them, even if you know that you are so, lest they 
should lose confidence in their elders. 

Now, if the professor had said toEllie, “Yes, my 
darling, it is a water-baby, and a very wonderful 
thing it is ; and it shows how little I know of the 
wonders of nature, in spite of forty years’ honest 
labor. I was just telling you that there could be 
no such creatures ; and, behold ! here is one come to 
confound my conceit and show me that Nature can 
do, and has done, beyond all that man’s poor fancy 
can imagine. So, let us thank the Maker, the 
Inspirer, the Lord of Nature, for all His wonderful 
and glorious works, and try and find out something 
about this one ; ” — I think that, if the professor had 
said that, little Ellie would have believed him more 
firmly, and respected him more deeply, and loved 
him better than ever she had done before. But he 
was of a different opinion. He hesitated a moment. 


1 









114 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


He longed to keep Tom, and yet half wished that 
he never had caught him ; and at last he longed to 
get rid of him. So he turned away and poked Tom 
with his finger, for want of anything better to do ; 
and said carelessly, ‘'My dear little maid, you 
must have dreamed of water-babies last night, your 
head is so full of them.” 

Now Tom had been in the most unspeakable fright 
all the while ; and had kept as quiet as he could, 
though he was called a Holothurian and a Ceph- 
alopod ; for it was fixed in his little head that if a 
man with clothes on caught him, he might put 
clothes on him, too, and make a dirty black chimney- 
sweep of him again. But, when the professor poked 
him, it was more than he could bear ; and, between 
fright and rage, he turned to bay as valiantly as a 
mouse in a corner, and bit the professor’s finger till 
it bled. “ Oh ! ah ! yah ! ” cried he ; and glad of an 
excuse to be rid of Tom, dropped him on to the 
seaweed, and thence he dived into the water and 
was gone in a moment. 

“ But it was a water-baby, and I heard it speak ! ” 
cried Elbe. “ Ah, it is gone ! ” And she jumped 
down off the rock to try and catch Tom before he 
slipped into the sea. Too late ! and what was worse, 
as she sprang down, she slipped, and fell some six 
feet with her head on a sharp rock, and lay quite 
still. 

The professor picked her up, and tried to waken 
her, and called to her, and cried over her, for he 
loved her very much : but she would not waken at 
all. So he took her up in his arms and carried her 
to her governess, and they all went home ; and little 
Ellie was put to bed, and lay there quite still ; only 
8 


A FAIBY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 115 

now and then she woke up and called out about the 
water-baby : but no one knew what she meant, and 
the professor did not tell, for he was ashamed to tell. 
And, after a week, one moonlight night, the fairies 
came flying in at the window and brought her such 
a pretty pair of wings that she could not help putting 
them on ; and she flew with them out of the window, 
and over the land, and over the sea, and up through 
the clouds, and nobody heard or saw anything of 
her for a very long while. 

And this is why they say that no one has ever yet 
seen a water-baby. For my part, I believe that the 
naturalists get dozens of them when they are out 
dredging ; but they say nothing about them, and 
throw them overboard again, for fear of spoiling 
their theories. But, you see, the professor was 
found out, as every one is in due time. A very ter- 
rible old fairy found the professor out ; she felt his 
bumps, and cast his nativity, and took the lunars 
of him carefully inside and out ; and so she knew 
what he would do as well as if she had seen it in a 
print book, as they say in the dear old west coun- 
try ; and he did it ; and so he was found out before- 
hand, as everybody always is ; and the old fairy 
will find out the naturalists some day, and put them 
in the Times, and then on whose side will the laugh 
be? 

So the old fairy took him in hand very severely 
there and then. But she says she is always most 
severe with the best people, because there is most 
chance of curing them, and therefore they are the 
patients who pay her best ; for she has to work on 
the same salary as the Emperor of China’s phy- 
sicians — no cure, no pay. 


116 


THE WATEE-BABIES. 


So she took the poor professor in hand : and be- 
cause he was not content with things as they are, 
she filled his head with things as they are not, to 
try if he would like them better ; and because he 
did not choose to believe in a water- baby when he 
saw it, she made him believe in worse things than 
water-babies — in unicorns, fire-drakes, manticoras, 
basilisks, amphisbaenas, griffins, phoenixes, rocs, 
ores, dog-headed men, three-headed dogs, three- 
bodied geryons, and other pleasant creatures, which 
folks think never existed yet, and which folks hope 
never will exist, though they know nothing about 
the matter, and never will ; and these creatures so 
upset, terrified, fiustered, aggravated, confused, as- 
tounded, and totally flabbergasted the poor professor 
that the doctors said that he was out of his wits 
for three months ; and perhaps they were right, as 
they are now and then. 

So all the doctors in the county were called in to 
make a report on his case ; and, of course, every 
one of them flatly contradicted the other : else what 
use is there in being a man of science ? But at last 
the majority agreed on a report in the true medical 
language, one-half bad Latin, the other half worse 
Greek, and the rest what might have been Eng- 
lish, if they had only learned to write it. And this 
is the beginning thereof — 

The suhanhypaposupernal anastomoses of per- 
itomic diacellurite in the encephalo digital-* region 
of the distinguished individual of whose sympto- 
matic phenomena we had the melancholy honor 
{subsequently to a preliminary diagnostic inspec- 
tion) of making an inspectoried diagnosis^ present- 
ing the interexclusively quadrilateral and antino- 


A FAIRY TALE FOB A LANL-BABY, 117 

mian diathesis knoivn as Bumpsterliausen^ s blue 
follicles, we proceed ’’ — 

But what they proceeded to do My Lady ne\er 
knew ; for she was so frightened at the long words 
that she ran and locked herself in her bedroom, for 
fear of being squashed by the words and strangled 
by the sentence. A boa constrictor, she said, was 
bad company enough : but what was a boa con- 
strictor made of paving stones ? 

It was quite shocking ! What can they think 
is the matter with him ? ’’ said she to the old nurse. 
‘‘ That his wit’s just addled ; maybe wi’ unbelief 
and heathenry,” quoth she. “ Then why can’t they 
say so ? ” And the heaven, and the sea, and the 
rocks, and the vales reechoed — ‘^Why, indeed?” 
But the doctors never heard them. 

So she made Sir John write to the Times, to com- 
mand the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time 
being to put a tax on long words : A light tax on 
words over three syllables, which are necessary evils, 
like rats : but, like them, must be kept down judi- 
ciously. A heavy tax on words over four syllables, 
as heterodoxy, spontaneity, spiritualism, spuriosity, 
etc. And on words over five syllables (of which I 
hope no one will wish to see any examples), a pro- 
hibitory tax. 

And a prohibitory tax on words derived from 
three or more languages at once ; words derived 
from two languages having become so common that 
there was no more hope of rooting out them than 
of rooting out pethwinds. 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being a scholar 
and a man of sense, jumped at the notion ; for he 
saw in it the one and only plan for abolishing 


118 


THE WATER BABIES. 


Schedule D : but when he brought in his bill, most 
of the Irish members, and some .of the Scotch like- 
wise, opposed it most strongly, on the ground that 
in a free country no man was bound either to un- 
derstand himself or to let others understand him. 
So the bill fell through ; and the Chancellor, being a 
philosopher, comforted himself with the thought 
that it was not the first time that a woman had hit 
off a grand idea aud the men turned up their stupid 
noses thereat. 

Now the doctors had it all their own way ; and to 
work they went in earnest, and they gave the poor 
professor divers and sundry medicines, as prescribed 
by the ancients and moderns, from Hippocrates to 
Feuchtersleben, as below, viz. : 

1. Hellebore, to-wit — Hellebore of ^ta. Hellebore 
of Galatia. Hellebore of Sicily. And all other Hel- 
lebores, after the method of the Helleborizing Helle- 
borists of the Helleboric era. But that would not 
do. Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles would not stir 
an inch out of his encephalo digital region. 

2. Trying to find out what was the matter with 
him, after the method of Hippocrates, Aretseus, 
Celsus, Ccelius Aurelianus, and Galen. 

But they found that a great deal too much 
trouble, as most people have since ; and so had re- 
course to — 

3. Borage. Cauteries. 

Boring a hole in his head to let out fumes, which 
(says Gordonius) ^‘will, without doubt, do much 
good.’’ But it didn’t. 

Bezoar stone, diamargaritum', a ram’s brain 
boiled in spice, oil of wormwood, water of Nile, 
capers, good wine (but there was none to be got). 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. HQ 

the water of a smith’s forge, hops, ambergris, 
mandrake pillows, dormouse fat, hares’ ears, starva- 
tion, camphor, salts and senna, musk, opium, strait- 
waistcoats, bullyings, bumpings, blisterings, bleed- 
ings, bucketings with cold water, knockings down, 
kneeling on his chest till they broke it in etc., etc.; 
after the medieval or monkish method : but that 
would not do. Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles stuck 
there still. 

Then — 

4. Coaxing, kissing, champagne and turtle, red 
herrings and soda-water, good advice, gardening, 
croquet, musical soirees. Aunt Sally, mild tobacco. 
The Saturday Review, a carriage with outriders, 
etc., etc. 

After the modern method. But that would not do. 

And if he had but been a convict lunatic, and had 
shot at the Queen, killed all his creditors to avoid 
paying them, or indulged in any other little eccen- 
tricity of that kind, they would have given him in 
addition — The healthiest situation in England, on 
Easthampstead Plain ; free run of Windsor Forest ; 
the Times every morning ; a double-barreled gun 
and pointers, and leave to shoot three Wellington 
College boys a week (not more) in case black game 
was scarce. 

But as he was neither mad enough nor bad enough 
to t)e allowed such luxuries, they grew desperate, 
and fell into bad ways, viz. : 

5. Suffumigations of sulphur, Herrwiggius his 

Incomparable drink for madmen : ” 

Only they could not find out what it was. 


Suffumigation of the liver of the fish * * * 


120 THE WATER-BABIES. 

Only they had forgotten its name, so Dr. Gray 
could not well procure them a specimen. 

Metallic tractors, Holloway’s Ointment, electro- 
biology, Valentine Greatrakes his Stroking Cure, 
spirit-rapping, Holloway’s Pills, table-turning, Mori- 
son’s Pills, Homeopathy, Parr’s Life Pills, mes- 
merism, pure bosh, exorcisms for which they read 
maleus maleficarum, nideri formicarium, delrio, 
Wierus, etc. But could not get one that mentioned 
water-babies. 

Hydropathy, Madame Eachel’s Elixir of Youth, 
the Poughkeepsie Seer his Prophecies,, the distilled 
liquor of addle eggs, pyropathy. 

As successfully employed by the old inquisitors to 
cure the malady of thought, and now by the Persian 
Mollahs to cure that of rheumatism. 

Geopathy, or burying him. Atmopathy, or steam- 
ing him. Sympathy, after the method of Basil 
Valentine his Triumph of Antimony, and Kenelm 
Digby his Weapon-slave, which some call a hair of 
the dog that bit him. Hermopathy, or pouring 
mercury down his throat, to move the animal 
spirits. 

Meteoropathy, or going up to the moon to look for 
his lost wits, as Euggiero did for Orlando Furioso’s : 
only, having no hippogriff, they were forced to use 
a balloon ; and, falling into the North Sea, were 
picked up by a Yarmouth herring-boat, and came 
home much the wiser, and all over scales. 

Antipathy, or using him like ‘‘ a man and a 
brother.” Apathy, or doing nothing at all. 

With all other ipathies and opathies which Noodle 
has invented, and Foodie tried, since black fellows 
chipped flints at Abbeville. 


A FAIRY TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 121 

But nothing would do ; for he screamed and cried 
all day for a water-baby to come and drive away the 



monsters ; and of course they did not try to find one 
because they did not believe in them, and were 
thinking of nothing hut Bumpsterhausen’s blue 


122 


THE WATEE-BABIES. 


follicles ; having, as usual, set the cart before the 
horse, and taken the effect for the cause. 

So they were forced at last to let the poor professor 
ease his mind by writing a great book, exactly con- 
trary to all his old opinions ; in which he proved 
that the moon was made of green cheese, and that 
all the mites in it (which you may see sometimes 
quite plain through a telescope, if you will only 
keep the lens dirty enough), are nothing vin the 
world but little babies, who are hatching and swarm- 
ing up there in millions, ready to come down into 
this world whenever children want a new little 
brother or sister. 

But one thing is certain ; that, when the good old 
doctor got his book written, he felt considerably 
relieved from Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles ; and 
became ever after a sadder and a wiser man ; which 
is a very good thing to become, even though one has 
to pay a heavy price for the blessing. 






124 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


CHAPTER V. 



UT what be- 
came of little 
Tom ? He slip- 
ped away off the 
rocks into the 
water, as I said 
before. But he 
could not help 
thinking of little 
Ellie. He did 
not remember 
who she was ; 
but he knew 
that she was a 
little girl, 
though she was 
a hundred times 
as big as he. 
That is not sur- 
prising : size has nothing to do with kindred. A 
tiny weed may be first cousin to a great tree ; and 
a little dog like Vick knows that Lioness is a dog, 
too, though she is twenty times larger than herself. 
So Tom knew that Ellie was a little girl, and thought 
about her all that day, and longed to have had her 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 125 

to play with; but he had very soon to think of 
something else. And here is the account of what 
happened to him, as it was published next morning 
in the Waterproof Gazette, on the finest watered 
paper, for the use of the great fairy, Mrs. Bedoneby- 
asyoudid, who reads the news very carefully every 
morning, and especially the police cases, as you will 
hear very soon. 

He was going along the rocks in three-fathom 
water, watching the pollock catch prawns, and the 
wrasses nibble barnacles off the rocks, shells and all, 
when he saw a round cage of green withes ; and 
inside it, looking very much ashamed of himself, 
sat his friend the lobster, twiddling his horns, 
instead of thumbs. 

What, have you been naughty, and have they 
put you in the lock-up ? ” asked Tom. The lobster 
felt indignant at such a notion, but he was too much 
depressed in spirits to argue ; so he only said; 
can’t get out.” 

“ Why did you get in ? After that nasty piece 
of dead fish.” He had thought it looked and smelt 
very nice when he was outside, and so it did, for a 
lobster : but now he turned round and abused it 
because he was angry with himself. ‘‘Where did 
you get in ? ” 

“Through that round hole at the top.” 

“ Then why don’t you get out through it ? ” 

“ Because I can’t ; ” and the lobster twiddled his 
horns more fiercely than ever, but he was forced to 
confess. “I have jumped upwards, downwards, 
backwards, and sideways, and I can’t get out : I 
always get up underneath there, and can’t find the 
hole.” 


126 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Tom looked at the trap, and having more wit than 
the lobster, he saw plainly enough what was the 
matter ; as you may if you will look at a lobster- 
pot. 

Stop a bit,’’ said Tom. Turn your tail up to 
me, and I’ll pull you through hindforemost, and 
then you won’t stick in the spikes.” 

But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that he 
couldn’t hit the hole. Like a great many fox- 
hunters, he was very sharp as long as he was in his 
own country ; but as soon as they get out of it they 
lose their heads ; and so the lobster, so to speak, 
lost his tail. 

Tom clawed down the hole after him, till he caught 
hold of him ; and then, as was to be expected, the 
clumsy lobster pulled him in head foremost. 
‘'Hulio! here is a pretty business,” said Tom. 
‘‘Now take your great claws, and break the points 
off those spikes, and then we shall both get out 
easily.” 

“Dear me, I never thought of that,” said the 
lobster ; “and after all the experience of life that I 
have had ! ” You see, experience is of very little 
good unless a man, or a lobster, has wit enough to 
make use of it. But they had not got half the spikes 
away when they saw a great dark cloud over them : 
and lo, and behold, it was the otter. How she did 
grin and grin when she saw Tom. “Yar!” said 
she, “you little meddlesome wretch, I have you 
now ! I will serve you out for telling the salmon 
where I was ! ” And she crawled all over the pot to 
get in. 

Tom was horribly frightened, and still more 
frightened when she found the hole in the top and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 127 

squeezed herself right down through it, all eyes and 
teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than 
valiant Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and held 
on. 

And there they were all three in the pot, rolling 
over and over, and very tight packing it was. And 
the lobster tore at the otter, and the otter tore at 
the lobster, and both squeezed and thumped poor 
Tom till he had no breath left in his body ; and I 
don’t know what would have happened to him if he 
had not at last got on the otter’s back, and safe out 
of the hole. 

He was right glad when he got out : but he would 
not desert his friend who had saved him ; and the 
first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold 
of it, and pulled with all his might. 

But the lobster would not let go. 

Come along,” said Tom ; don’t you see she is 
dead ? ” And so she was, quite drowned and dead. 

And that was the end of the wicked otter. 

But the lobster would not let go. 

‘‘ Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud,” 
cried Tom, ‘‘or the fisherman will catch you.” 
And that was true, for Tom felt some one hauling 
up the pot. But the lobster would not let go. 

Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the boat- 
side, and thought it was all up with him. But 
when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave such 
a furious and tremendous snap that he snapped out 
of his hand, and out of the pot, and safe into the 
sea. But he left his knobbed claw behind him ; for it 
never came into his stupid head to let go, after all, 
so he just shook his claw off as the easier method. 
It was something of a bull, that ; but you must 


128 


THE WATEE-B ABIES. 


know the lobster was an Irish lobster, and was 
hatched off Island Magee at the mouth of Belfast 
Lough. 

Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of 
letting go. He said very determinedly that it was 
a point of honor among lobsters. And so it is, as 
the Mayor of Plymouth found out once to his cost 
— eight or nine hundred years ago, of course ; for 
if it had happened lately it would be personal to 
mention it. 

For one day he was so tired of sitting on a hard 
chair, hearing one policeman after another come in 
and sing, “ What shall we do with the drunken 
sailor, so early in the morning?” and answering 
them each exactly alike ; ‘ ‘ Put him in the round- 
house till he gets sober, so early in the morning ” — 
that, when it was over, he jumped up, and played 
leap-frog with the town-clerk till he burst his but- 
tons, and then had his luncheon, and burst some 
more buttons, and then said : ‘Ht is a low spring- 
tide ; I shall go out this afternoon and cut my 
capers.” 

Now he did not mean to cut such capers as you 
eat with boiled mutton. It was the commandant of 
artillery at Valettawho used to amuse himself with 
cutting them, and who stuck upon one of the bas- 
tions a notice, ‘^No one allowed to cut capers here 
but me,” which greatly edified the midshipmen in 
port, and the Maltese on the Nix Mangiare stairs. 
But all that the mayor meant was that he would go 
and have an afternoon’s fun, like any schoolboy, 
and catch lobsters with an iron hook. 

So to the Mewstone he went, and for lobsters he 
^looked. And when he came to a certain crack in 
























130 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


the rocks he was so excited that, instead of putting 
in his hook, he put in his hand ; and Mr. Lobster 
was at home, and caught him by the finger, and 
held on. 

Yah ! ” said the mayor, and pulled as hard as he 
dared : but the more he pulled, the more the lob- 
ster pinched, till he was forced to be quiet. 

Then he tried to get his hook in with his other 
hand ; but the hole was too narrow. Then he 
pulled again ; but he could not stand the pain. 

Then he shouted and bawled for help : but there 
was no one nearer him than the men-of-war inside 
the break-water. Then he began to turn a little 
pale ; for the tide fiowed, and still the lobster held 
on. 

Then he turned quite white ; for the tide was up 
to his knees, and still the lobster held on. Then he 
thought of cutting olf his finger ; but he wanted 
two things to do it with — courage and a knife ; and 
he had got neither. 

Then he turned quite yellow ; for the tide was up 
to his waist, and still the lobster held on. Then he 
thought over all the naughty things he ever had 
done ; all the sand which he had put in the sugar, 
and the sloe-leaves in the tea, and the water in the 
treacle, and the salt in the tobacco (because his 
brother was a brewer, and a man must help his own 
kin). 

Then he turned quite blue ; for the tide was up to 
his breast, and still the lobster held on. 

Then, I have no doubt, he repented fully of all 
the said naughty things which he had done, and 
promised to mend his life, as too many do when they 
think they have no life left to mend. Whereby, as 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 131 

they fancy, they make a very cheap bargain. But the 
old fairy with the birch rod soon undeceives them. 

And then he grew all colors at once, and turned 
up his eyes like a duck in thunder ; for the water 
was up to his chin, and still the lobster held on. 

And then came a man-of-war’s boat round the 
Mewstone, and saw his head sticking up out of the 
water. One said it was a keg of brandy, and an- 
other that it was a cocoanut, and another that it 
was a buoy loose, and another that it was a black 
diver, and wanted to fire at it, which would not have 
been pleasant for the mayor : but just then such a 
yell came out of a great whole in the middle of it that 
the midshipman in charge guessed what it was, and 
bade pull up to it as fast as they could. So some- 
how or other the Jack-tars got the lobster out, and 
set the mayor free, and put him ashore at the Bar- 
bican. He never went lobster-catching again. 

And that is the story of the Mayor of Plymouth, 
which has two advantages — first, that of being 
quite true ; and, second, that of having no moral 
whatsoever ; no more, indeed, has any part of this 
hook, because it is a fairy tale, you know. 

And now happened to Tom a most wonderful 
thing ; for he had not left the lobster five minutes 
before he came upon a water-baby. A real live 
water-baby, sitting on the white sand, very busy 
about a little point of rock. And when it saw Tom 
it looked up for a moment, and then cried, ‘‘Why, 
you are not one of us. You are a new baby ! Oh, 
how delightful ! ” 

And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and they 
hugged and kissed each other for ever so long, they 
did not know why. But they did not want any im 


132 


THE WATETt-BABIES, 


troductions there under the water. At last Tom 
said, Oh, where have you been all this while ? I 
have been looking for you so long, and I have been 
so lonely.” 

We have been here for days and days. There 
are hundreds of us about the rocks. How was it 
you did not see us, or hear us when we sing and 
romp every evening before we go home ? ” 

Tom looked at the baby again, and said : Well, 
this is wonderful ! I have seen things like you 
again and again, but I thought you were shells or 
sea-creatures. I never took you for water-babies 
like myself.” Now, was not that very odd ? So 
odd, indeed, that you will, no doubt, want to know 
how it happened, and why Tom could never find a 
water-baby till after he had got the lobster out of 
the pot. And if you will read this story nine times 
over, and then think for yourself, you will find 
out why. It is not good for little boys to be told 
everything, and never be forced to use their own 
wits. 

Now,” said the baby, come and help me, or I 
shall not have finished before my brothers and sis- 
ters come, and it is time to go home.” — ‘‘What shall 
I help you at ? ” — “ At this poor dear little rock ; a 
great clumsy boulder came rolling by in the last 
storm and knocked all its head off and rubbed off 
all its flowers. And now I must plant it again 
with seaweeds, and coralline, and anemones, and I 
will make it the prettiest little rock-garden on all 
the shore.” 

So they worked away at the rock, and planted it, 
and smoothed the sand down round it, and capital 
fun they had till the tide began to turn. And then 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LANV-BABY. 133 

Tom heard all the other babies coming, laughing 
and singing and shouting and romping ; and the 
noise they made was just like the noise of the rip- 
ple. So he knew that he had been hearing and see- 
ing the water- babies all along ; only he did not 
know them, because his eyes and ears were not 
opened. And in they came, dozens and dozens of 

them, some bigger than Tom and some smaller, all 
in the neatest white bathing-dresses ; and when 
they found that he was a new baby, they hugged 
and kissed him, and put him in the middle and 
danced round him on the sand, and there was no 
one ever so happy as poor little Tom. ‘‘Now, 

then, ” they cried all at once, “ we must come away 
home, or the tide will leave us dry. We have 
mended all the broken seaweed, and put all the 
rock-pools in order, and planted all the shells again 
in the sand, and nobody will see where the ugly 
storm swept in last week.” 

And this is the reason why the rock-pools are al- 
ways so neat and clean ; because the water-babies 
come in-shore after every storm to sweep them out, 
and comb them down, and put them all to rights 
again. 

Only when men are wasteful and dirty, and let 
sewers run into the sea instead of putting the stuff 
upon the fields like thrifty, reasonable souls ; or 
throw herrings’ heads and dead dog-fish, or any 
other refuse, into the water ; or in any way make a 
mess upon the clean shore — there the water-babies 
will not come, sometimes not for hundreds of years 
(for they cannot abide anything smelly or foul), but 
leave the sea-anemones and the crabs to clear away 
everything, till the good tidy sea has covered up all 


134 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


the dirt in soft mud and clean sand, where the 
water-babies can plant live cockles and whelks and 
razor-shells and sea-cucurnbers and golden-combs, 
and make a pretty live garden again, after man’s 
dirt is cleared away. And that, I suppose, is the 
reason why there are no water-babies at any water- 
ing-place which I have ever seen. 

And where is the home of the water-babies ? In 
St. Brandan’s fairy isle. 

Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan, 
how he preached to the wild Irish on the wild Kerry 
coast, he and five other hermits, till they were 
weary and longed to rest ? For the wild Irish would 
not listen to them, but liked better to brew potheen, 
and dance the pater o’pee, and knock each other over 
the head with shillelaghs, and shoot each other 
from behind turf-dykes, and steal each other’s cat- 
tle, and burn each other’s homes ; till St. Brandan 
and his friends were weary of them, for they would 
not learn to be peaceable Christians at all. 

So St. Brandan went out to the point of Old Dun- 
more, and looked over the tide-way roaring round 
the Blasquets, at the end of all the world, and away 
into the ocean, and sighed — ‘‘Ah, that I had wings 
as a dove ! ” And far away, before the setting sun, 
he saw a blue fairy sea, and golden fairy islands, 
and he said, “Those are the islands of the blest.” 
Then he and his friends got into a hooker, and 
sailed away and away to the westward, and were 
never heard of more. But the people who would 
not hear him were changed into gorillas, and goril- 
las they are until this day. 

And when St. Brandan and the hermits came to 
that fairy isle they found it overgrown with cedars 











mmm 




r^py.k 


‘'rV' V#>i:A 







136 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


and full of beautiful birds ; and he sat down under 
the cedars and preached to all the birds in the air. 
And they liked his sermons so well that they told 
the fishes in the sea ; and they came, and St. Bran- 
dan preached to them ; and the fishes told the 
water-babies, who live in the caves under the isle ; 
and they came up by hundreds every Sunday, and 
St. Brandan got quite a neat little Sunday-school. 
And there he taught the water- babies for a great 
many hundred years, till his eyes grew too dim to 
see, and his beard grew so long that he dared not 
walk for fear of treading on it, and then he might 
have tumbled down. And at last he and the five 
hermits fell fast asleep under the cedar-shades, and 
there they sleep unto this day. But the fairies took 
to the water-babies, and taught them their lessons 
themselves. 

And some say that St. Brandan will awake and 
begin to teach the babies once more : but some think 
that he will sleep on, for better or worse, till the 
coming of the Cocqcigrues. But, on still, clear 
summer evenings, when the sun sinks down into 
the sea, among golden cloud capes and cloud-islands, 
and locks and friths of azure sky, the sailors fancy 
that they see, away to the westward, St. Brandan’s 
fairy isle. 

But whether men can see it or not, St. Brandan’s 
Isle once actually stood there ; a great land out in 
the ocean, which has sunk and sunk beneath the 
waves. Old Plato called it Atlantis, and told 
strange tales of the wise men who lived therein, 
and of the wars they fought in the old times. 
And from off that Island came strange flowers, 
which linger still about this land : — the Cornish 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 137 

heath and Cornish moneywort, and the delicate 
Venus hair, and the London-pride which covers the 
Kerry Mountains, and the little pink butterwort of 
Devon, and the great blue butterwort of Ireland, 
and the Connemara heath, and the bristle-fern of 
the Turk waterfall, and many a strange plant more ; 
all fairy tokens left for wise men and good children 
from oft St. Brandan’s Isle. 

Now, when Tom got there, he found that the isle 
stood all on pillars, and that its roots were full of 
caves. There were pillars of black basalt, like 
Staffa ; and pillars of green and crimson serpentine, 
like Ky nance ; and pillars ribboned with red and 
white and yellow sandstone, like Livermead ; and 
there were blue grottoes, like Capri, and white 
grottoes, like Adelsberg ; all curtained and draped 
with seaweeds, purple and crimson, green and 
brown ; and strewn with soft white sand, on which 
the water-babies sleep every night. But, to keep 
the place clean and sweet, the crabs picked up all 
the scraps off the floor and ate them like so many 
monkeys ; while the rocks were covered with ten 
thousand sea-anemones, and corals and madrepores, 
who scavenged the water all day long, and kept it 
nice and pure. But, to make up to them for having 
to do such nasty work, they were not left black and 
dirty, as poor chimney-sweeps and dustmen are. 
No ; the fairies are more considerate and just than 
that, and have dressed them all in the most beautiful 
colors and patterns, till they look like vast flower- 
beds of gay blossoms. If you think I am talking 
nonsense, I can only say that it is true ; and that an 
old gentleman named Fourier used to say that we 
ought to do the same by chimney-sweeps and 


138 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


dustmen, and honor them instead of despising them ; 
and he was a very clever old gentleman : but, 
unfortunately for him and the world, as mad as a 
March hare. 

And, instead of policemen to keep out nasty things 
at night, there were thousands of water-snakes, and 
most wonderful creatures they were. They were 
all named after the Nereids, the sea-fairies who took 
care of them, Eunice and Polynoe, Phyllodoce and 
Psamathe, and all the rest of the pretty darlings 
who swim round their Queen Amphitrite, and her 
car of cameo shell. They were dressed in green 
velvet, and black velvet, and purple velvet ; and 
were all jointed in rings ; and some of them had 
three hundred brains apiece, so that they must have 
been uncommonly shrewd detectives ; and some had 
eyes in their tails ; and some had eyes in every joint, 
so that they kept a very sharp lookout ; and when 
they wanted a baby-snake, they just grew one at 
the end of their own tails, and when it was able to 
take care of itself it dropped off ; so that they 
brought up their families very cheaply. But, if any 
nasty thing came by, out they rushed upon it ; 
and then out of each of their hundreds of feet 
there sprang a whole cutler’s shop of scythes, 
billhooks, pickaxes, forks, penknives, rapiers, sabers, 
yataghans, creeses, ghoorka swords, tucks, javelins, 
lances, halberts, gisarines, poleaxes, fishhooks, 
bradawls, gimlets, corkscrews, pins, needles, and so 
forth, which stabbed, shot, poked, pricked, scratched, 
pinked, and crimped those naughty beasts so terribly 
that they had to run for their lives, or else be 
chopped into small pieces and be eaten afterwards. 
And, if that is not all, every word, true, then there 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 139 

is no faith in microscopes, and all is over with the 
Linnsean Society. 

And there were the water-babies in thousands, 
more than Tom, or you either, could count. All the 
little children whom the good fairies take to, because 
their cruel mothers and fathers will not ; all who 
are untaught and brought up heathens, and all who 
come to grief by ill-usage or ignorance or neglect ; 
all the little children who are let to drink out of hot 
kettles, or to fall into the fire ; all the little children 
in alleys and courts, and tumbledown cottages, who 
die by fever, and cholera, and measles, and scarla- 
tina, and nasty complaints which no one has any 
business to have, and which no one will have some 
day, when folks have common sense ; and all the 
little children who have been killed by cruel masters 
and wicked soldiers ; they were all there, except, of 
course, the babes of Bethlehem who were killed by 
wicked King Herod ; for they were taken straight 
to heaven long ago, and we call them the Holy 
Innocents. 

But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty 
tricks, and left off tormenting dumb animals now 
that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse him. 
Instead of that, I am sorry to say, he would meddle 
with the creatures, all but the water-snakes, for they 
would stand no nonsense. So he tickled the madre- 
pores, to make them shut up ; and frightened the 
crabs, to make them hide in the sand and peep out 
at him with the tips of their eyes ; and put stones 
into the anemones’ mouths, to make them fancy 
that their dinner was coming. 

The other children warned him, and said, “Take 
care what you are at. Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid is 


140 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


coming.” But Tom never heeded them, being quite 
riotous with high spirits and good luck, till, one 
Friday morning early, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid came 
indeed. 

A very tremendous lady she was ; and when the 
children saw her they all stood in a row, very 
upright, indeed, and smoothed down their bathing 
dresses, and put their hands behind them, just as if 
they were going to be examined by the inspector. 

And she had on a black bonnet, and a black shawl, 
and a pair of large green spectacles, and a great 
hooked nose, hooked so much that the bridge of it 
stood quite up above her eyebrows ; and under her 
arm she carried a great birch-rod. Indeed, she was 
so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces at 
her : but did not ; for he did not admire the look of 
the birch-rod under her arm. 

And she looked at the children one by one, and 
seemed very much pleased with them, though she 
never asked them one question about how they 
were behaving ; and then began giving them all 
sorts of nice sea-things — sea-cakes, sea-apples, sea- 
oranges, sea-bullseyes, sea-toffee ; and to the very 
best of all she gave sea-ices, made out of sea-cows’ 
cream, which never melt under water. 

And if you don’t quite believe me, then just 
think — What is more cheap and plentiful than sea- 
rock ? Then why should there not be sea-toffee as 
well ? And every one can find sea-lemons (ready 
quartered too) if they will look for them at low 
tide ; and sea-grapes, too, sometimes, hanging in 
bunches ; and, if you will go to Nice, you will find 
the fish-market full of sea-fruit, which they call 
‘‘frutta di mare.” And, perhaps, that is the very 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


141 


Nice, because there 
sea there : at least, 


reason why the place is called 
are so many nice things in the 
if it is not, it ought to be. 

Now little Tom watched all these sweet things 
given away, till his 
mouth watered, and his 
eyes grew as round as 
an owPs. For he hoped 
that his turn would 
come at last ; and so 
it did. For the lady 
called him up, and held 
out her fingers with 
something in them, and 
popped it into his 
mouth ; and, lo and be- 
hold, it was a nasty cold 
hard pebble. 

‘‘You are a very 
cruel woman,” said he, 
and began to whimper. 

— “ And you are a very 
cruel boy ; who puts 
pebbles into the sea- 
anemones’ mouths, to 
make them fancy that 
they had caught a good 
dinner ! As you did to 
them, so I must do to 
you.” 

“ Who told you that ? ” said Tom. 

“You did yourself, this very minute.” Tom had 
never opened his lips ; so he was very much taken 
aback, indeed. “ Yes ; every one tells me exactly 



142 


THE WATEB-B ABIES. 


what they have done wrong ; and that without 
knowing it themselves. So there is no use trying 
to hide anything from me. Now go, and be a good 
boy, and I will put no more pebbles in your mouth, 
if you put none in other creatures’.” 

did not know there was any harm in it,” said 
Tom. — ‘‘Then you know now. People continually 
say that to me : but I tell them, if you don’t know 
that fire burns, that is no reason that it should not 
burn you ; and if you don’t know that dirt breeds 
fever, that is no reason why the fevers should not 
kill you. The lobster did not know that there was 
any harm in getting into the lobster-pot ; but it 
caught him all the same.” 

“Dear me,” thought Tom, “she knows every- 
thing ! ” And so she did, indeed. 

“ And so, if you do not know that things are 
wrong, that is no reason why you should not be 
punished for them ; though not as much, my little 
man, as if you did know.” 

“Well, you are a little hard on a poor lad,” said 
Tom. — “Not at all ; I am the best friend you ever 
had in all your life. But I will tell you ; I cannot 
help punishing people when they do wrong. I like 
it no more than they do ; I am often very sorry for 
them, poor things : but I cannot help it. If I tried 
not to do it, I should do it all the same. For I 
work by machinery, just like an engine, and am 
full of wheels and springs inside ; and am wound 
up very carefully, so that I cannot help going.” 

“Was it long ago since they wound you up?” 
asked Tom. For he thought, the cunning little 
fellow, “ She will run down someday : or they may 
forget to wind her up, as old Grimes used to for- 


A FAiar TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 143 

get to wind up his watch when he came in from the 
public-house ; and then I shall be safe.” 

“I was wound up once and for all, so long ago, 
that I forget all about it.” 

^^Dear me,” said Tom, ‘‘ you must have been made 
a long time ! ” 

I never was made, my child ; and I shall go for 
ever and ever ; for I am as old as Eternity, and yet 
as young as Time.” 

And there came over the lady’s face a very 
curious expression — very solemn, and very sad ; and 
yet very, very sweet. And §he looked up and away, 
as if she were gazing through the sea, and through 
the sky, at something far, far off ; and as she did 
so, there came such a quiet, tender, patient, hope- 
ful smile over her face that Tom thought for the 
moment that she did not look ugly at all. And no 
more she did ; for she was like a great many people 
who have not a pretty feature in their faces, and 
yet are lovely to behold, and draw little children’s 
hearts to them at once ; because though the house 
is plain enough, yet from the windows a beautiful 
^d good spirit is looking forth. 

''And Tom smiled in her face, she looked so pleasant 
for the moment. And the strange fairy smiled too, 
and said : “ Yes. You thought me very ugly just 
now, did you not ? ” Tom hung down his head, and 
got very red about the ears. 

And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy in 
the world ; and I shall be, till people behave them- 
selves as they ought to do. And then I shall grow 
as handsome as my sister, who is the loveliest fairy 
in the world ; and her name is Mrs. Doasyouwould- 
bedoneby. So she begins where I end, and I begin 


144 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


where she ends ; and those who will not listen to 
her must listen to me, as you will see. Now, all of 
you run away, except Tom ; and he may stay and 
see what I am going to do. It will be a very good 
warning for him to begin with, before he goes to 
school. Now, Tom, every Friday I come down 
here and call up all who have ill-used little children 
and serve them as they served the children.” 

And at that Tom was frightened, and crept under 
a stone ; which made the two crabs who lived there 
very angry, and frightened their friend the butter- 
fish into fiapping hysterics : but he would not move 
for them. 

And first she called up all the doctors who give 
little children so much physic, and she set them all 
in a row ; and very rueful they looked ; for they 
knew what was coming. And first she pulled all 
their teeth out ; and then she bled them all round ; 
and then she dosed them with calomel, and jalap, 
and salts and senna, and brimstone and treacle ; 
and horrible faces they made ; and then she gave 
them a great emetic of mustard and water, and no 
basons ; and began all over again ; and that was the 
way she spent the morning. 

And then she called up a whole troop of foolish 
ladies, who pinch up their children’s waists and toes ; 
and she laced them all up in tight stays, so that 
they were choked and sick, and their noses grew 
red, and their hands and feet swelled ; and then 
she crammed their poor feet into the most dread- 
fully tight boots, and made them all dance, which 
they did most clumsily, indeed ; and then she asked 
them how they liked it ; and when they said not at 
all, she let them go : because they had only done it 


1 



146 


THE WATEB-B ABIES. 


out of foolish fashion, fancying it was for their 
children’s good, as if wasps’ waists and pigs’ toes 
could be pretty, or wholesome, or of any use to 
anybody. 

Then she called up all the careless nurserymaids, 
and stuck pins into them all over, and wheeled them 
about in perambulators with tight straps across 
their stomachs and their heads and arms hanging 
over the side, till they were quite sick and stupid, 
and would have had sunstrokes ; but, being under 
the water, they could only have water-strokes ; 
which, I assure you, are nearly as bad, as you will 
find out if you try to sit under a mill-wheel. And 
mind — when you hear a rumbling at the bottom of 
the sea, sailors will tell you that it is a ground-swell : 
but now you know better. It is the old lady wheel- 
ing the maids about in perambulators. 

And that time she was so tired that she had to go 
to luncheon. And after luncheon she set to work 
again, and called up all the cruel schoolmasters — 
whole regiments and brigades of them ; and, when 
she saw them, she frowned most terribly, and set to 
work in earnest, as if the best part of the day’s 
work was to come. More than half of them were 
nasty, dirty, frowzy, grubby, smelly old monks, 
who, because they dare not hit a man of their own 
size, amused themselves with beating little children 
instead ; as you may see in the picture of old Pope 
Gregory (good man and true though he was, when 
he meddled with things which he did not under- 
stand), teaching children to sing their fa-fa-mi-fa 
with a cat-o’-nine-tails under his chair : but, because 
they never had any children of their own, they took 
into their heads (as folks do still) that they were the 

lO 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LANB-BABT. 147 

only people in the world who knew how to manage 
children : and they first brought into England, in 
the old Anglo-Saxon times, the fashion of treating 
free boys, and girls, worse than yon would treat 
a dog or a horse : but Mrs. Bed one by as you did has 
caught them all long ago ; and given them many a 
taste of their own rods ; and much good may it do 
them. 

And she boxed their ears, and thumped them over 
the head with rulers, and pandied their hands with 
canes, and told them that they told stories, and were 
this and that bad sort of people ; and the more they 
were very indignant, and stood upon their honor, 
and declared they told the truth, the more she 
declared they were not, and that they were only 
telling lies ; and at last she birched them all round 
soundly with her great birch-rod and set them each 
an imposition of three hundred thousand lines of 
Hebrew to learn by heart before she came back 
next Friday. And at that they all howled and cried 
so that their breaths came up through the sea like 
bubbles out of soda-water ; and that is one reason 
of the bubbles in the sea. There are others : but 
that is the one which principally concerns little boys. 
And by that time she was so tired that she was glad 
to stop ; and, indeed, she had done a very good day’s 
work. 

Tom did not quite dislike the old lady : hut he 
could not help thinking her a little spiteful— and no 
wonder if she was, poor old soul ; for if she has to 
wait to grow handsome till people do as they would 
be done by, she will have to wait a very long time. 

Poor old Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! she has a deal 
of hard work before her, and had better have been 


148 


THE WATEB-BABIES, 


born a washerwoman, and stood over a tub all day ; 
but, people cannot always choose their own profes- 
sion. 

But Tom longed to ask her one question ; and, 
after all, she did not look cross at all ; and now and 
then there was a funny smile in her face, and she 
chuckled to herself in a way which gave Tom 
courage, and at last he said : ‘ ‘ Pray, ma’am, my I 
ask you a question ? ” 

‘‘ Certainly, my little dear.” 

Why don’t you bring all the bad masters here 
and serve them out, too ? The butties that knock 
about the poor collier-boys ; and the nailers that file 
off their lads’ noses and hammer their fingers ; and 
all the master sweeps, like Grimes ? I saw him fall 
into the water long ago ; so I surely expected he 
would have been here. I’m sure he was bad enough 
to me.” 

The old lady looked so stern that Tom was quite 
frightened, and sorry that he had been so bold. 
But she was not angry with him. She only answered, 
“ I look after them all the week round ; and they 
are in a very different place from this, because they 
knew that they were doing wrong.” She spoke 
quietly ; but there was something in her voice which 
made Tom tingle from head to foot, as if he had got 
into a shoal of sea-nettles. 

“But these people,” she went on, “did not 
know that they were doing wrong : they were only 
stupid and impatient ; and therefore I only punish 
them till they become patient, and learn to use 
their common sense like reasonable beings. But as 
for chimney-sweeps, and collier-boys, and nailer lads, 
my sister has set good people to stop all that sort of 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAEL-BABY. 149 

thing ; if she could only stop the cruel masters from 
ill-using poor children, I should grow handsome at 
least a thousand years sooner. And now do you 
be a good boy, and do as you would be done by, 
which they did not ; and then, when my sister, 
Madame Doasyouwouldbedoneby, comes on Sun- 
day, perhaps she will take notice of you, and teach 
you how to behave. She understands that better 
than I do.” And so she went. 

Tom was very glad to hear that there was no 
chance of meeting Grimes again, but he determined 
to be a very good boy all Saturday ; and he was ; for 
he never frightened one crab, nor tickled any live 
corals, nor put stones into the sea anemones’ mouths, 
to make them fancy they had got a dinner ; and 
when Sunday morning came, sure enough, Mrs. 
Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, too. Whereat all 
the little children began dancing and clapping their 
hands, and Tom danced too with all his might. 

And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you what 
the color of her hair was, or of her eyes : no 
more could Tom ; for, when any one looks at her, 
all they can think of is, that she has the sweetest, 
kindest, tenderest, funniest, merriest face they ever 
saw, or want to see. But Tom saw that she was a 
very tall woman, as tall as her sister : but instead 
of being gnarly, and horny, and scaly, and prickly, 
like her, she was the most nice, soft, fat, smooth, 
pussy, cuddly, delicious creature who ever nursed 
a baby ; and she understood babies thoroughly, for 
she had plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments 
of them, and has to this day. And all her delight 
was, whenever she had a spare moment, to play 
with babies, in which she showed herself a woman 


150 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


of sense ; for babies are the best company and the 
pleasantest playfellows in the world ; at least, so all 
the wise people in the world think. And, there- 
fore, when the children saw her, they naturally 
all caught hold of her, and pulled her, till she 
sat down on a stone, and climbed into her lap, 
and clung round her neck, and caught hold of her 
hands ; and then they all put their thumbs into their 
mouths, and began cuddling and purring like so 
many kittens, as they ought to have done. While 
those who could get nowhere else sat down on the 
sand, and cuddled her feet— for no one, you know, 
wears shoes in the water, except horrid old bathing- 
women, who are afraid of the water-babies pinch- 
ing their horny toes. And Tom stood staring at 
them ; for he could not understand what it was all 
about. 

‘‘ And who are you, you little darling ? ” she said. 

Oh, that is the new baby ! ” they all cried, pulling 
their thumbs out of their mouths ; and he never 
had any mother,^* and they all put their thumbs 
back again, for they did not wish to lose any time. 

Then I will be his mother, and he shall have the 
very best place ; so get out, all of you, this mo- 
ment.” 

And she took up two great armfuls of babies — 
nine hundred under one arm and thirteen hundred 
under the other — and threw them away, right and 
left, into the water. But they minded it no more 
than the naughty boys in Struwelpeter minded 
when St. Nicholas dipped them in his inkstand ; 
and did not even take their thumbs out of their 
mouths, but came paddling and wriggling back to 
her like so many tadpoles, till you could see noth- 


€ 














152 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


ing of her from head to foot for the swarm of little 
babies. 

But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him in 
the softest place of all, and kissed him, and patted 
him, and talked to him, tenderly and low, such 
things as he had never heard before in his life ; and 
Tom looked up into her eyes, and loved her, till he 
fell fast asleep from pure love. And when he 
awoke she was telling the children a story. And 
what story did she tell them ? One story she told 
them, which begins every Christmas Eve, and yet 
never ends at all for ever and ever ; and, as she 
went on, the children took their thumbs out of their 
mouths and listened quite seriously, but not sadly 
at all ; for she never told them anything sad ; and 
Tom listened, too, and never grew tired of listening. 
And he listened so long that he fell fast asleep 
again, and, when he woke, the lady was nursing 
him still. 

‘‘ Don’t go away,” said little Tom. ‘‘ This is so 
nice. I never had any one to cuddle me before.” 

Don’t go away,” said all the children; “you 
have not sung us one song.” — “ Well, I have time 
for only one. So what shall it be ? ” 

“ The doll you lost ! The doll you lost ! ” cried 
all the babies at once. So the strange fairy sang : 

I once had a sweet little doll, dears, 

The prettiest doll in the world : 

Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears. 

And her hair was so charmingly curled. 

But I lost my poor little doll, dears. 

As I played in the heath one day ; 

And I cried for her for more than a week, dears. 

But I never could find where she lay. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 153 

I found my poor little doll, dears, 

As I played in the heath one day ; 

Folks say she is terribly changed, dears, 

For her paint is all washed away. 

And her arm trodden oif by the cows, dears, 

And her hair not the least bit curled : 

Yet for old sakes’ sake she is still, dears. 

The prettiest doll in the world. 

What a silly song for a fairy to sing. And what 
silly water-babies to be delighted at it ! Well, but 
you see they have not the advantage of Aunt Agi- 
tato’s Arguments in the sea-land down below. 

Now,” said the fairy to Tom, will you be a good 
boy, and torment no more sea-beasts till I come 
back ? ” 

‘‘ And you will cuddle me again ?” said poor lit- 
tle Tom. — “Of course I will, you little duck. I 
should like to take you with me and cuddle you all 
the way, only I must not ; ” and away she went. 
So Tom really tried to be a good boy, and tormented 
no sea-beasts after that as long as he lived ; and he 
is quite alive, I assure you, still. 

Oh, how good little boys ought to be who have 
kind pussy mammas to cuddle them and tell them 
stories ; and how afraid they ought to be of growing 
naughty, and bringing tears into their mammas’ 
pretty eyes ! 


154 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


CHAPTER VL 



Here I come to 
the very saddest 
part of all my story. 
I know some people 
will only laugh at 
it, and call it much 
ado about nothing. But I 


know one man who would not ; 
and he was an officer with a 
pair of gray mustaches as long 
as your arm, who said once in 
company that two of the most 
heartrending sights in the 
world, which moved him most 
to tears, which he would do 
anything to prevent or remedy, 
were a child over a broken toy and a child stealing 
sweets. 

The company did not laugh. His mustaches 
were too long and too gray for that ; but, after he 


A FAmr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 155 

was gone, they called him sentimental, all but one 
dear old Quaker lady with a soul as white as her 
cap, who was not, of course, generally partial to 
soldiers ; and she said very quietly, like a Quaker : 
‘ ‘ Friends, it is borne upon my mind that that is a 
truly brave man.” 

Now you may fancy that Tom was quite good, 
when he had everything that he could want or 
wish ; but you would be very much mistaken. Be- 
ing quite comfortable is a very good thing ; but it 
does not make people good. Indeed, it sometimes 
makes them naughty, as it made the people in the 
Bible, who waxed fat and kicked, like horses overfed 
and underworked. And I am very sorry to say 
that this happened to little Tom. For he grew so 
fond of the sea-bullseyes and sea-lollipops that his 
foolish little head could think of nothing else : and 
he was always longing for more, and wondering 
when the strange lady would come again and give 
him some, and what she would give him, and how 
much, and whether she would give him more than 
the others. And he thought of nothing but lollipops 
by day, and dreamed of nothing else by night — and 
what happened then ? 

That he began to watch the lady to see where she 
kept the sweet things : and began hiding, and 
sneaking, and following her about, and pretending 
to be looking the other way, or going after some- 
thing else, till he found out that she kept them in a 
beautiful mother-of-pearl cabinet away in a deep 
crack of the rocks. 

He longed to go to the cabinet, and yet he was 
afraid ; then he longed again, and was less afraid ; 
and at last, by continual thinking about it, he longed 


156 


THE WATEE-BABIES. 


SO violently that he was not afraid at all. And one 
night, when all the other children were asleep, and 
he could not sleep for thinking of lollipops, he crept 
away among the rocks and got to the cabinet, and 
behold ! it was open. 

But when he saw all the nice things inside, instead 
of being delighted, he was quite frightened, and 
wished he had never come there. And then he 
would only touch them, and he did ; and then he 
would only taste one, and he did ; and then he would 
only eat one, and he did ; and then he would only 
eat two, and then three, and so on ; and then he was 
terrified lest she should come and catch him, and 
began gobbling them down so fast that he did not 
taste them, or have any pleasure in them ; and then 
he felt sick, and would have only one more ; and 
then only one more again ; and so on till he had 
eaten them all up. And all the while, close behind 
him, stood Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. 

Some people may say. But why did she not keep 
her cupboard locked? Well, it may seem a very 
strange thing, but she never does ke^p her cupboard 
locked ; every one may go and taste for themselves, 
and fare accordingly. It is very odd, but I am 
quite sure that she knows best. Perhaps she wishes 
people to keep their fingers out of the fire, by having 
them burned. 

She took off her spectacles, because she did not 
like to see too much ; and in her pity she arched up 
her eyebrows into her very hair, and her eyes grew 
so wide that they would have taken in all the sor- 
rows of the world, and filled with great big tears, 
as they too often do. 

But all she said was : Ah, you poor little dear ! 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LANE-BABY, 


157 


you are just like all the rest.” But she said it to 
herself, and Tom neither heard nor saw her. Now 
you must not fancy that she was sentimental at all. 
If you do, and think that she is going to let off you. 
or me, or any human being when we do wrong, be- 
cause she is too tender-hearted to punish us, then 
you will find yourself very much mistaken, as many 
a man does every year and every day. 

But what did the fairy do when she saw all her 
lollipops eaten ? Did she fly at Tom, catch him by 
the scruff of the neck, hold him, hump him, hurry 
him, hit him, poke him, pull him, pinch him, pound 
him, put him in the corner, shake him, slap him, set 
him on a cold stone to reconsider himself, and so 
forth ? 

Not a bit. You may watch her at work if you 
know where to find her. But you will never see her 
(To that. For, if she had, she knew quite well Tom 
would have fought, and kicked, and bit, and said 
bad words, and turned again that moment into a 
naughty little heathen chimney-sweep, with his 
hand, like IshmaePs of old, against every man, and 
every man’s hand against him. 

Did she question him, hurry him, frighten him, 
threaten him, to make him confess? Not a bit. 
You may see her, as I said, at her work often 
enough if you know where to look for her : but you 
will never see her do that. For, if she had, she 
would have tempted him to tell lies in his fright ; 
and that would have been worse for him, if possible, 
than even becoming a heathen chimney-sweep 
again. 

No. She leaves that for anxious parents and 
teachers who, instead of giving children a fair trial, 


158 * THE WATEE-BABIES, 

such as they would expect and demand for them- 
selves, force them by fright to confess their own 
faults — which is so cruel and unfair that no judge 
on the bench dare do it to the wickedest thief or 
murderer, — ay, and even punish them to make them 
confess, which is so detestable a crime that it is 
never committed now, save by Inquisitors, and 
Kings of Naples, and a few other wretched people 
of whom the world is weary. And then they say, 
“We have trained up the child in the way he should 
go, and when he grew up he has departed from it. 
Why then did Solomon say that he would not de- 
part from it ? ’’ But perhaps the way of beating, and 
hiirrying, and frightening, and questioning was not 
the way that the child should go ; for it is not even 
the way in which a colt should go if you want to 
break it in and make it a quiet, serviceable horse. 

Some folks may say, “Ah! but the Fairy does 
not need to do that if she knows everything al- 
ready.” True. But, if she did not know, she 
would not surely behave worse than a British judge 
and jury ; and no more should parents and teachers 
either. So she just said nothing at all about the 
matter, not even when Tom came next day with 
the rest for sweet things. He was horribly afraid 
of coming : but he was still more afraid of staying 
away, lest any one should suspect him. He was 
dreadfully afraid, too, lest there should be no sweets 
— as was to be expected, he having eaten them all — 
and lest then the fairy should inquire who had taken 
them. But, behold ! she pulled out just as many 
as ever, which astonished Tom, and frightened him 
still more. 

And, when the fairy looked him full in the face. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 159 

be shook from head to foot : however, she gave him 
his share like the rest, and he thought within him- 
self that she could not have found him out. But, 
when he put the sweets into his mouth, he hated 
the taste of them ; and they made him so sick that 
he had to get away as fast as he could ; and terribly 
sick he was, and very cross and unhappy, all 
the week after. 

“Then, when next week came, he had his share 
again ; and again the fairy looked him full in 
the face ; but more sadly than she had ever looked. 
And he could not bear the sweets ; but took them 
again in spite of himself. 

And when Mrs. Doasy ou would bedone by came, 
he wanted to be cuddled like the rest, but she said 
very seriously : “ I should like to cuddle you ; but I 
cannot, you are so horny and prickly.’’ And Tom 
looked at himself : and he was all over prickles, just 
like a sea-egg. 

Which was quite natural ; for you must know 
and believe that people’s souls make their bodies 
just as a snail makes its shell (I am not joking, my 
little man ; I am in serious, solemn earnest). And, 
therefore, when Tom’s soul grew all prickly with 
naughty tempers, his body could not help growing 
prickly, too, so that nobody would cuddle him, or 
play with him, or even like to look at him. 

What could Tom do now but go away and hide 
in a corner and cry ? For nobody would play with 
him, and he knew full well why. 

And he was so miserable all that week that when 
the ugly fair}’’ came and looked at him once more 
full in the face, more seriously and sadly than ever, 
he could stand it no longer, and thrust the sweet- 



ICO THE WATER-BABIES. 


meats away, saying, ‘‘No, I don’t want any : I 
can’t bear them now,” and then burst outcrying, 
poor little man, and told Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
every word as it happened. 

He was horribly fright- 
ened when he had done so ; 
for he expected her to 
punish him very severely. 

But, instead, she only took 
him up and kissed him, 
which was not quite pleas- 
ant, for her chin was very 
bristly, indeed ; but he 
was so lonely-hearted, he 
thought that rough kiss- 
ing was better than none. 

I will forgive you, little 
man,” she said. “I al- 
ways forgive every one the 
moment they tell me the 
truth of their own accord.” 

“Then you will take 
away all these nasty 
prickles ? ” 

“ That is a very differ- 
ent matter. You put 
them there yourself, and 
only you can take them 
away.” 

“But how can I do that?” asked Tom, cryino* 
afresh.— “ Well, I think it is time for you to go to 
school ; so I shall fetch you a schoolmistress, who 
will teach you how to get rid of your prickles.” 
And so she went away. 


$ 




162 


THE WATEB-BABIE8, 


Tom was frightened at the notion of a school- 
mistress ; for he thought she would certainly come 
with a birchrod or a cane ; but he comforted him- 
self, at last, that she might be something like the 
old woman in Vendale — which she was not in the 
least ; for, when the fairy brought her, she was the 
most beautiful little girl that e:^er was seen, with 
long curls floating behind her like a golden cloud, 
and long robes floating all round her like a silver 
one. “There he is,” said the fairy; “and you 
must teach him to be good, whether you like or 
not.” 

“ I know,” said the little girl ; but she did not 
seem quite to like, for she put her finger in her 
mouth, and looked at Tom under her brows ; and 
Tom put his finger in his mouth, and looked at her 
under his brows, for he was horribly ashamed of 
himself. 

The little girl seemed hardly to know how to 
begin ; and she would never have begun at all if 
poor Tom had not burst out crying, and begged her 
to teach him to be good and help him to cure his 
prickles ; and at that she grew so tender-hearted 
that she began teaching him as prettily as ever child 
was taught in the world. 

And what did the little girl teach Tom ? She 
taught him, first, what you have been taught ever 
since you said your first prayers at your mother’s 
knees ; hut she taught him much more simply. 
For the lessons in that world, have no such hard 
words in them as the lessons in this, and therefore 
the water-babies like them better than you like 
your lessons, and long to learn them more and 
more ; and grown men cannot puzzle nor quarrel 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAWD-BABY. 163 

over their meaning, as they do here on land ; for 
those lessons all rise clear and pure, out of the ever- 
lasting ground of all life and truth. 

So she taught Tom every day in the week ; only 
on Sundays she always went away home, and the 
kind fairy took her place. And before she had 
taught Tom many Sundays, his prickles had van- 
ished quite away, and his skin was smooth and 
clean again. “Dear me!” said the little girl; 
“ why, 1 know you now. You are the very same little 
chimney-sweep who came into my bedroom.” 

“Dear me!” cried Tom. “And I know you, 
too, now. You are the very little white lady whom 
I saw in bed.” And he jumped at her, and longed 
to hug and kiss her ; but did not, remembering that 
she was a lady born ; so he only jumped round and 
round her till he was quite tired. And then they 
began telling each other all their story — how he had 
got into the water, and she had fallen over the rock ; 
and how he had swum down to the sea, and how 
she had flown out of the window ; and how this, 
that, and the other, till it was all talked out : and 
then they both began over again, and I can’t say 
which of the two talked fastest. And then they set 
to work at their lessons again and both liked them 
so well that they' went on well till seven full years 
were past and gone. 

You may fancy that Tom was quite content and 
happy all those seven years ; but the truth is, he 
was not. He had always one thing on his mind, and 
that was— where little Ellie went, when she went 
home on Sundays. “ To a very beautiful place, she 
said. What was the beautiful place like, and where 
was it ? 


164 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Ah ! that is just what she could not say. And it 
is strange, but true, that no one can say ; and that 
those who have been oftenest in it, or even nearest 
to it, can say least about it, and make people under- 
stand least what it is like. There are a good many 
folks about the Other-end-of-Nowhere (where Tom 
went afterwards), who pretend to know it from 
north to south as well as if they had been penny 
postmen there ; but, as they are safe at the Other- 
end-of-Nowhere, nine hundred and ninety-nine mil- 
lion miles away, what they say cannot concern us. 
But the dear, sweet, loving, wise, good, self-sacri- 
ficing people, who really go there, can never tell 
you anything about it, save that it is the most beau- 
tiful place in the world ; and, if you ask them 
more, they grow modest and hold their peace, for 
fear of being laughed at ; and quite right they 
are. 

So all that good little Elbe could say was, that it 
was worth all the rest of the world put together. 
And of course that only made Tom the more anxious 
to go likewise. Miss Ellie,” he said at last, ‘‘ I will 
know why I cannot go with you when you go home 
on Sundays, or I shall have no peace, and give you 
none either.” 

‘‘You must ask the fairies that.” So when the 
fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, came next, Tom 
asked her. ‘ ‘ Little boys who are only fit to play 
with sea-beasts cannot go there,” she said. “ Those 
who go there must go first where they do not like, 
and do what they do not like, and help somebody 
they do not like.” 

“Why, did Elbe do that?”— “Ask her.” And 
Elbe blushed, and said, “Yes, Tom ; I did not like 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 


165 


coming here at first ; I was so much happier at 
home, where it is always Sunday. And I was 
afraid of you, Tom, at first, because — because ” 

‘ ‘ Because I was all over prickles ? But I am not 
prickly now, am I, Miss Elbe ? ” 

‘‘No,” said Elbe. “I like you very much now ; 
and I like coming here, too.” 

“And, perhaps,” said the fairy, “you will learn 
to like going where you don’t like, and helping some 
one that you don’t like, as Elbe has.” 

But Tom put his finger in his mouth, and hung 
his head down ; for he did not see that at all. So 
when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, Tom asked 
her ; for he thought in his little head, ‘ ‘ She is not 
so strict as her sister, and perhaps she may let me 
off more easily.” 

Ah, Tom, silly fellow ! and yet I don’t know why 
I should blame you, while so many grown people 
have got the very same notion in their heads. But, 
when they try it, they get just the same answer as 
Tom did. For,' when he asked the second fairy, she 
told him just what the first did, and in the very 
same words. 

Tom was very unhappy at that. And when Elbe 
went home on Sunday, he fretted and cried all day, 
and did not care to listen to the fairy’s stories about 
good children, though they were prettier than ever. 
The more he heard of them, the less he liked to 
listen, because they were all about children who did 
what they did not like, and took trouble for other 
people, and worked to feed their little brothers and 
sisters instead of caring only for their play. And, 
when she began to tell a story about a holy child in 
old times, who was martyred by the heathen be- 


166 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


cause it would not worship idols, Tom could bear no 
more, and ran off and hid among the rocks. 

And, when Elbe came back, he was shy with her, 
because he fancied she looked down on him, and 
thought him a coward. And then he grew quite 
cross with her, because she was superior to him, and 
did what he could not do. And poor Elbe was quite 
surprised and sad ; and at last Tom burst out cry- 
ing ; but he would not tell her what was really in 
his mind. 

And all the while he was eaten up with curiosity 
to know where Elbe went to ; so that he began not 
to care for his playmates, or for the sea-palace or 
anything else. But perhaps that made matters all 
the easier for him ; for he grew so discontented with 
everything that he did not care to stay, and did not 
care where he went. “Well,” he said, at last, “I 
am so miserable here. I’ll go ; if only you will go 
with me ? ” 

“Ah!” said Elbe, “I wish I might; hut the 
worst of it is, that the fairy says that you must go 
alone if you go at all. Now don’t poke that poor 
crab about, Tom ” (for he was feeling very naughty 
and mischievous), “ or the fairy will have to punish 
you.” 

Tom was very nearly saying, “ I don’t care if she 
does ; ” but he stopped himself in time. 

“I know what she wants me to do,” he said, 
whining dolefully. “ She wants me to go after that 
horrid Grimes. I don’t like him, that’s certain. 
And if I find him, he will turn me into a chimney- 
sweep again, I know. That’s what I have been 
afraid of all along.” 

“No, he won’t — I know as much as that. No- 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 167 

body can turn water-babies into sweeps, or hurt 
them at all, as long as they are good.” 

“Ah,” said naughty Tom, “I see what you 
want ; you are persuading me all along to go, be- 
cause you are tired of me, and want to get rid of me.” 

Little Elbe opened her eyes very wide at that, and 
they were all brimming over with tears. “Oh, 
Tom, Tom ! ” she said, very mournfully — and then 
she cried, “Oh, Tom ! where are you?” 

And Tom cried, “ Oh, Elbe, where are you ?” For 
neither of them could see each other — not the least. 
Little Elbe vanished away, and Tom heard her 
voice calling him, and growing fainter and fainter, 
till all was silent. 

Who was frightened then but Tom ? He swam 
up and down among the rocks, into all the halls 
and chambers, faster than ever he swam before, but 
could not find her. He shouted after her, but she 
did not answer ; he asked all the other children, 
but they had not seen her ; and at last he went up 
to the top of the water and began crying and 
screaming for Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid — which per- 
haps was the best thing to do — for she came in a 
moment. “Oh !” said Tom. “Oh dear, oh dear ! 
1 have been naughty to Elbe, and I have killed her 
— I know I have killed her.” 

“Not quite that,” said the fairy; “but I have 
sent her away home, and she will not come back 
again for I do not know how long.” 

And at that Tom cried so bitterly that the salt 
sea was swelled with his tears, and the tide wa& 
.3,954,620,819 of an inch higher than it had been 
the day before : but perhaps that was owing to the 
waxing of the moon. 


1G8 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


‘‘ How cruel of you to send Ellie away ! ” sobbed 
Tom. ‘‘ However, I will find her again, if I go to 
the world’s end to look for her.” 

The fairy did not slap 
Tom, and tell him to 
hold his tongue : but she 
took him on her lap very 
kindly, just as her sister 
would have done ; and 
put him in mind how it 
was not her fault, be- 
cause she was wound 
up inside, like watches, 
and could not help do- 
ing things whether she 
liked or not. And then 
she told him how he had 
been in the nursery long 
enough, and must go 
out now and see the 
world, if he intended 
ever to be a man ; and 
how he must go all alone 
by himself, as every one 
else that ever was born 
has to go, and see with 
his own eyes, and smell 
with his own nose, and make his own bed and lie on 
it, and burn his own fingers if he put them into the 
fire. And then she told him how many fine things 
there were to be seen in the world, and what an 
odd, curious, pleasant, orderly, respectable, well- 
managed, and, on the whole, successful sort of a 
place it was, if people would only be tolerably brave 



A FAIRV TALE FOR A LAND-BABT. 169 

and honest and good in it ; and then she told him 
not to be afraid of anything he met, for nothing 
would harm him if he remembered all his lessons, 
and did what he knew was right. And at last she 
comforted poor little Tom so much that he was 
quite eager to go, and wanted to set out that min- 
ute. “ Only,” he said, “ if I might see Ellie once 
before I went!” — ^‘Why do you want that?” — 

Because I should be happier if I thought she had 
forgiven me.” 

And in the twinkling of an eye there stood Ellie, 
smiling and looking so happy that Tom longed 
to kiss her ; but was still afraid it would not be 
respectful, because she was a lady born. I am go- 
ing, Ellie ! ” said Tom. ‘ ‘ I am going, if it is to the 
world’s end. But I don’t like going at all, and 
that’s the truth.” 

“Pooh! pooh! pooh!” said the fairy. “You 
will like it very well, indeed, you little rogue, and 
you know that at the bottom of your heart. But if 
you don’t, I will make you like it. Come here, and 
see what happens to people who do only what is 
pleasant. ” 

And she took out one of her cupboards (she had 
all sorts of mysterious cupboards in the cracks of 
the rocks) the most wonderful waterproof book, full 
of such photographs as never were seen. For she 
had found out photography (and this is a fact) more 
than 13,598,000 years before anybody was born ; 
and, what is more, her photographs did not merely 
represent light and sjiade, as ours do, but color also, 
and all colors, as you may see if you look at a black- 
cock’s tail, or a butterfly’s wing, or indeed most 
things that are or can be, so to speak. And there- 


170 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


fore her photographs were very curious and famous, 
and the children looked with great delight for the 
opening of the book. 

And on the title-page was written, The History 
of the great and famous nation of the Doasyoulikes, 
who came away from the country of Hardwork, be- 
cause they wanted to play on the Jews’ harp all day 
long.” 

In the first picture they saw these Doasyoulikes 
living in the land of Eeadymade, at the foot of the 
Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where fiapdoodle grows 
wild ; and if you want to know what that is, read 
Peter Simple. 

They lived very much such a life as those jolly 
old Greeks in Sicily, whom you may see painted on 
the ancient vases, and really there seemed to be 
great excuses for them, for they had no need to 
work. Instead of houses they lived in the beautiful 
caves of tufa, and bathed in the warm springs three 
times a day ; and, as for clothes, it was so warm 
there that the gentlemen walked about in little be- 
side a cocked hat and a pair of straps, or some light 
summer tackle of that kind ; and the ladies all 
gathered gossamer in autumn (when they were not 
too lazy) to make their winter dresses. 

They vrere very fond of music, but it was too 
much trouble to learn the piano or the violin ; and 
as for dancing, that would have been too great an 
exertion. So they sat on ant-hills all day long, and 
played on the Jews’ harp ; and, if the ants bit them, 
why they just got up and went to the next ant-hill, 
till they were bitten there likewise. And they sat 
under the fiapdoodle-trees, and let the fiapdoodle 
drop into their mouths ; and under the vines, and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 171 

squeezed the grape- juice down their throats ; and, 
if any little pigs ran about ready roasted, crying, 
“Come and eat me,” as was the fashion in that 
country, they waited till the pigs ran against their 
mouths, and then took a bite, and were content, 
just as so many oysters would have been. 

They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever 
came near their land ; and no tools, for everything 
was ready-made to their hand ; and the stern old 
fairy Necessity never came near them to hunt them 
up, and make them use their wits, or die. And so 
on, and so on, and so on, till there were never such 
comfortable, easy-going, happy-go-lucky people in 
the world. “ Well, that is a jolly life,” said Tom. 

“You think so?” said the fairy. “Do you see 
that great peaked mountain there behind,” said the 
fairy, “with smoke coming out of its top?” — 
“ Yes.” — “ And do you see all those ashes, and slag, 
and cinders lying about ?” — “ Yes.” 

“ Then turn over the next five hundred years, and 
you will see what happens next.” And behold the 
mountain had blown up like a barrel of gunpowder, 
and then boiled over like a kettle ; whereby one- 
third of the Doasyoulikes were blown into the air, 
and another third were smothered in ashes ; so that 
there was only one-third left. “You see,” said the 
fairy, “ what comes of living on a burning moun- 
tain.” 

“ Oh, why did you not warn them ?” said Ellie. 

“ I did warm them all that I could. I let the 
smoke come out of the mountain ; and wherever 
there is smoke there is fire. And I laid the ashes 
and cinders all about ; and wherever there are 
cinders cinders may be again. But they did not like 


172 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


to face facts, and so they invented a cock-and-bull 
story, that the smoke was the breath of a giant, 
whom some gods or other had buried under the 
mountain ; and that the cinders were what the 
dwarfs roasted the little pigs whole with, and other 
nonsense of that kind. And, when folks are in that 
humor, I cannot teach them, save by the good old 
birch-rod.” 

And then she turned over the next five hundred 
years : and there were the remnant of the Doasyou- 
likes, doing as they liked, as before. They were too 
lazy to move away from the mountain ; so they 
said, ‘‘If it has blown up once, that is all the more 
reason that it should not blow up again.” And 
they were few in number : but they only said, “The 
more the merrier, but the fewer the better fare.” 
However, that was not quite true ; for all the 
flapdoodle-trees were killed by the volcano, and they 
had eaten all the roast pigs, who, of course, could 
not be expected to have little ones. So they had to 
live very hard, on nuts and roots which they scratch- 
ed out of the ground with sticks. Some of them 
talked of sowing corn, as their ancestors used to do, 
before they came into the land of Eeadymade ; but 
they had forgotten how to make plows and had 
eaten all the seed-corn which they brought out of 
the land of Hardwork years since ; and, of course, 
it was too much trouble to go away and find more. 
So they lived miserably on roots and nuts, and all 
the weakly little children had great stomachs, and 
then died. 

“ Why,” said Tom, “ they are growing no better 
than savages.” And Ella replied, “And look how 
ugly they are getting.” 


173 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 

Yes ; when people live on poor vegetables in- 
stead of roast beef and plum-pudding, their jaws. 



grow large and their lips grow coarse, like the poor 
Paddies who eat potatoes.” And she turned over 


174 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


the next five hundred years. And there they were 
all living up in trees, and making nests to keep off 
the rain. And underneath the trees lions were 
prowling about. ‘‘Why,’’ said Ellie, “the lions 
seem to have eaten a good many of them, for there 
are very few left now.” 

“ Yes,” said the fairy ; “ you see it was only the 
strongest and most active ones who could climb the 
trees, and so escape.” 

“ But what hulking, broad-shouldered chaps they 
are,” said Tom ; “ they are as rough a lot as ever I 
saw.” 

“ Yes, they are getting very strong now ; for the 
ladies will not marry any but the very strongest 
and fiercest gentlemen, who can help them up the 
trees out of the lions’ way.” And she turned over 
the next five hundred years. And in that they were 
fewer still, and stronger, and fiercer ; but their feet 
had changed shape very oddly, for they laid hold of 
the branches with their great toes, as if they had 
been thumbs, just as a Hindoo tailor uses his toes to 
thread his needle. 

The children were surprised, and asked the fairy 
whether that washer doing. “Yes and no,” she 
said, smiling. “It was only those who could use 
their feet as well as their hands who could get 
a good living ; or, indeed, get married, so that they 
got the best of everything, and starved out all the 
rest ; and those who are left keep up a regular breed 
of toe-thumb-men, as a breed of sky e- terriers, or 
fancy pigeons is kept up.” 

“ But there is a hairy one among them,” said little 
Ellie. “Ah ! ” said the fairy, “that will be a great 
man in his time, and chief of all the tribe.” And, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 175 

when she turned over the next five hundred years, 
it was true. 

For this hairy chief had had hairy children, and 
they hairier children still ; and every one wished to 
marry hairy husbands, and have hairy children too ; 
for the climate was growing so damp that none but 
the hairy ones could live ; all the rest coughed and 
sneezed, and had sore throats, and went into con- 
sumptions, before they could grow up to be men and 
women. 

Then the fairy turned over the next five hundred 
years. And they were fewer still. ‘‘Why, there 
is one on the ground picking up roots,” said Ellie, 
“ and he cannot walk upright.” No more he could : 
for in the same way that the shape of 1 heir feet had 
altered, the shape of their backs had altered also. 
“ Why,” cried Tom, “I declare they are all apes.” 

“Something fearfully like it, poor foolish 
creatures,” said the fairy. “They are grown so 
stupid now that they can hardly think : for none of 
them have used their wits for many hundred years. 
They have almost forgotten, too, how to talk. For 
each stupid child forgot some of the words it heard 
from its stupid parents, and had not wits enough to 
make fresh words for itself. Beside, they are grown 
so fierce and suspicious and brutal that they keep 
out of each other’s way, and mope and sulk in the 
dark forests, never hearing each other’s voice, till 
they have forgotten almost what speech is like. I 
am'afraid they will all be apes very soon, and all by 
doing only what they liked.” 

And in the next five hundred years they were all 
dead and gone, by bad food and wild beasts and 
hunters ; all except one tremendous old fellow with 


176 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


jaws like a jack, who stood full seven feet high ; 
and Du Chaillu came up to him, and shot him, as 
he stood roaring and thumping his breast. And he 
remembered that his ancestors had once been men, 
and tried to say, ‘ ‘ Am I not a man and a brother ? ” 
fbut had forgotten how to use his tongue : and then 
he had tried to call for a doctor, but he had forgotten 
the word for one. So all he said was ‘‘ Ubboboo ! ’’ 
and died. 

And that was the end of the great and jolly nation 
of the Doasyoulikes. “But could you not have 
saved them from becoming apes ? ’’ said little Ellie, 
at last. “At first, my dear, if only they would 
have behaved like men, and set to work to do what 
they did not like. But the longer they w^aited, and 
behaved like the dumb beasts, the stupider and 
clumsier they grew ; till at last they were past all 
cure, for they had thrown their own wits away. It 
is such things as this that help to make me so ugly, 
that I know not when I shall grow fair. “And 
where ai'e they all now ?'” asked Ellie. “ Exactly 
where they ought to be, my dear.” 

“ Yes?” said the fairy, solemnly, half to herself, 
as she closed the wonderful book. “ Folks say now 
that I can make beasts into men, by circumstance, 
and selection, and competition, and so forth. Well, 
perhaps they are right ; and perhaps again, they 
are wrong. That is one of the seven things which 
I am forbidden to tell, till the coming of the Coq- 
cigrues ; and, at all events, it is no concern of 
theirs. 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 


177 


CHAPTEE VIL1 



OW, ” said 
Tom, I am 
ready to be 
oif, if it’s to 
the world’s 
end.” 

Ah ! ” said the 
fairy, ‘Hhat is a 
brave, good boy. 
But you must go 
farther than the 
world’s end, if 
you want to find 
Grimes ; for he 
is at the Other- 
end-of -Nowhere . 
You must go to 
Shiny W all, and 
through the white 
gate that never 
was opened ; and 
then you will 
come to Peacepool, and Mother Carey’s Haven, 
where the good whales go when they die. And 
there Mother Carey will tell you the way to the 
Other-end-of-No where, and there you will find 
Grimes.” 


178 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


Oh, dear!” said Tom. ‘‘But I do not know 
my way to Shiny Wall, or where it is at all.” 

“ Little boys must take the trouble to find out 
things for themselves, or they will never grow to be 
men ; so that you must ask all the beasts in the sea 
and the birds in the air, and if you have been good 
to them, some of them will tell you the way to 
Shiny Wall.” 

“Well,” said Tom, “it will be a long journey, so 
I had better start at once. Good-by, Miss Ellie ; 
you know I am getting a big boy, and I must see 
the world.” 

“I know you must,” said Ellie; “but you will 
not forget me, Tom. I shall wait here till you 
come.” 

And she shook hands with him, and bade him 
good-by. Tom longed very much again to kiss 
her ; but he thought it would not be respectful, 
considering she was a lady born ; so he promised 
not to forget her : but his little whirl-about of a 
head was so full of the notion of going out to see 
the world, that it forgot her in five minutes : how- 
ever, though his head forgot her, I am glad to say 
his heart did not. 

So he asked all the beasts in the sea, and all the 
birds in the air, but none of them knew the way to 
Shiny Wall. For why ? He was still too far down 
south. 

Then he met a ship, far larger than he had ever 
seen — a gallant ocean-steamer, with a long cloud of 
smoke trailing behind ; and he wondered how she 
went on without sails, and swam up to her to see. 
A school of dolphins were running races round and 
round her, going three feet for her one, and Tom 







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180 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


asked them the way to Shiny Wall : but they did 
not know. Then he tried to find out how she 
moved, and at last he saw her screw, and was so 
delighted with it that he played under her quarter 
all day, till he nearly had his nose knocked off by 
the fans, and thought it time to move. Then he 
watched the sailors upon deck, and the ladies, with 
their bonnets and parasols : but none of them could 
see him, because their eyes were not opened — as, 
indeed, most people’s eyes are not. 

At last there came out into the quarter-gallery a 
very pretty lady, in deep black widow’s weeds, and 
in her arms a baby. She leaned over the quarter- 
gallery, and looked back and back toward England 
far away ; and as she looked she sang : 

“ Soft, soft wind, from out the sweet south sliding, 

Waft thy silver cloud-webs athwart the summer sea ; 

Thin, thin threads of mist on dewy fingers twining 
Weave a veil of dappled gauze to shade my babe and me. 


“ Deep, deep Love, within thine own abyss abiding, 

Pour Thyself abroad, 0 Lord, on earth and air and sea ; 

Worn, weary hearts within Thy holy temple hiding,- 
Shield from sorrow, sin, and shame my helpless babe and 
me.” 

Her voice was so soft and low, and the music of 
the air so sweet, that Tom could have listened to it 
all day. But as she held the baby over the gallery 
rail, to show it the dolphins leaping and the water 
gurgling in the ship’s wake, lo ! and behold, the 
baby saw Tom. 

He was quite sure of that ; for when their eyes 
met, the baby smiled and held out its hands ; and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


181 


Tom smiled and held out his hands too; and the 
baby kicked and leaped, as if it wanted to jump 
overboard to him. “ What do you see, my darling ? ” 
said the lady ; and her eyes followed the baby’s till 
she, too, caught sight of Tom, swimming among 
the foam -beads below. She gave a little shriek and 
start ; and then she said, quite quietly, “ Babies in 

the sea ? Well, per- 
haps, it is the hap- 
piest place for 
them ; ” and waved 
her hand to Tom, 
and cried, ‘‘Wait a 
little, darling, only 
a little : and perhaps 
we shall go with you 
and be at rest.” 

And at that an old 
, nurse, all in black, 
came out and talked 
to her and drew her 
in. And Tom turned 
away n orth ward, 
sad and wondering ; 
and watched the 
great steamer slide 
away into the dusk, 
and the lights on 
board peep out one 
by one, and die out 
again, and the long 
bar of smoke fade away into the evening mist, 
till all was out of sight. 

And he swam northward again, day after day. 



182 


THE WATEB-BABIES, 


till at last he met the King of the Herrings, with a 
currycomb growing out of his nose, and a sprat in 
his mouth for a cigar, and asked him the way to 
Shiny Wall ; so he bolted his sprat head- foremost, 
and said: ‘Hf I were you, young gentleman, I 
should go to the Allalonestone, and ask the last of 
the GairfowL She is of a very ancient clan, and 
knows a good deal which these modern upstarts 
don’t, as ladies of old houses are likely to do.” 

Tom asked his way to her, and the King of the 
Herrings told him very kindly, for he was a courte- 
ous old gentleman of the old school, though he was 
horribly ugly. But just as Tom had thanked him 
and set off, he called after him: “ Hi ! I say, can 
you fly ? ” 

I never tried,” says Tom. Why ? ” 

^‘Because, if you can, I should advise you to say 
nothing to the old lady about it. There ; take a 
hint. Good-by.” 

And away Tom went for seven days and seven 
nights due northwest, till he came to a great cod- 
bank, the like of which he never saw before. The 
cod lay below in thousands, and gobbled shell-fish 
all day long ; and the blue sharks roved about in 
hundreds, and gobbled them when they came up. 
So they ate, and ate, and ate each other, as they had 
done since the making of the world ; for no man 
had come here yet to catch them, and find out how 
rich old Mother Carey is. 

And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl, stand- 
ing up on the Allalonestone, all alone. And a very 
grand old lady she was, full three feet high, and 
bolt upright, like some old Highland chieftainess. 
She had on a black velvet gown, and a white pinner 


A FAIEY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 183 

and apron, and a very high bridge to her nose 
(which is a sure mark of high breeding), and a large 
pair of white spectacles on it which made her look 
rather odd : but it was the ancient fashion of her 
house. And, instead of wings, she had two little 
feathery arms, with which she fanned herself, and 
complained of the dreadful heat : and she kept on 
crooning an old song to herself, which she learned 
when she was a little baby-bird, long ago — 

“Two little birds they sat on a stone, 

One swam away, and then there was one, 

With a fal-lal-la-lady. 

“ The other swam after, and then there was none ; 

And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 

With a fal-lal-la-lady.” 

It was ^^flew” away, properly, and not ‘‘swam ’’ 
away : but, as she could not fly, she had a right to 
alter it. However, it was a very fit song for her to 
sing, because she was a lady herself. 

Tom came up to her very humbly, and made his 
bow ; and the first thing she said was — ‘ ‘ Have you 
wings ? Can you fly ? ’’ 

“Oh, dear, no, ma’am ; I should not think of such 
a thing,” said cunning little Tom. 

“ Then I shall have pleasure in talking to you. 
It is refreshing nowadays to see anything without 
wings. They must all have wings, every new up- 
start sort of bird, and fly. What caii they want 
with flying, and raising themselves above their 
proper station in life ?” And so she was running 
on, while Tom tried to get in a word edgeways ; and 


184 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


at last he did, when the old lady got out of breath, 
and began fanning herself again ; and then he asked 
if she knew the way to Shiny Wall. 

‘‘ Shiny Wall ? Who should know better than I ? 
We all came from Shiny Wall, thousands of years 
ago, when it was decently cold, and the climate was 
fit for gentlefolk ; but now, what with the heat, 
and what with these vulgar- winged things who fly 
up and down and eat everything, so that gentle- 
people’s hunting is all spoiled, and one cannot really 
get one’s living, or hardly venture off the rock for 
fear of being flown against by some creature that 
would not have dared to come within a mile of one 
a thousand years ago — what was I saying ? Why, 
we have quite gone down in the world, my dear, 
and have nothing left but our honor. And I am 
the last of my family. A friend of mine and I 
came and settled on this rock when we were young, 
to be out of the way of low people. Once we were 
a great nation, and spread over all the Northern 
Isles. But men shot us so, and knocked us on the 
head, and took our eggs — why, if you will believe 
it, they say that on the coast of Labrador the sailors 
used to lay a plank from the rock on board the 
thing called their ship, and drive us along the plank 
by hundreds, till we tumbled down into the ship’s 
waist in heaps ; and then, I suppose, they ate us, 
the nasty fellows ! Well — but — what was I saying ? 
At last, there were none of us left, except on the 
old Gairfowlskerr}^, just off the Iceland coast, up 
which no man could climb. Even there we had no 
peace ; for one day, when I was quite a young girl, 
the land rocked, and the sea boiled, and the sky 
grew dark, and all the air was filled with smoke and 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


185 


dust, and down tumbled the old Gairfowlskeny 
into the sea. The dovekies and marracks, of course, 
all flew away ; but we were too proud to do that. 
Some of us were dashed to pieces and some drowned ; 
and those who were left got away to Eldey, and the 
dovekies tell me they are all dead now, and that an- 
other Gairfowlskerry has risen out of the sea close 
to the old one, but that it is such a poor flat place 
that it is not safe to live on : and so here I am left 
all alone.” 

This was the GairfowTs story, and, strange as it 
may seem, it is every word of it true. ‘ ‘ If you had 
wings!” said Tom; ‘^you might all have flown 
away, too.” 

Yes, young gentleman : and if people are not 
gentlemen and ladies, and forget that noblesse oblige, 
they will And it as easy to get on in the world as 
other people who don’t care what they do. Why, if 
I had not recollected that noblesse oblige, I should 
not have been all alone now.” And the poor old 
lady sighed. 

“ How was that, ma’am ?” — Why, a gentleman 
came hither with me, and, after we had been here 
some time, he wanted to marry me. Well, I can’t 
blame him ; I was young, and very handsome then, 
I don’t deny : but, you see, I could not hear of such 
a thing, because he was my deceased sister’s hus- 
band, you See ? ” 

‘‘Of course not, ma’am,” said Tom ; though, of 
course, he knew nothing about it. “ She was very 
much diseased, I suppose ? ” 

“You do not understand me, my dear. I mean 
that, being a lady, with right and honorable feel- 
ings, as our house always has had, I felt it my duty 


186 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


to snub him, and peck him continually, to keep him 
at his proper distance ; and, to tell the truth, I once 
pecked him a little too hard, poor fellow, and he 
tumbled backwards off the rock, and — really, it was 
very unfortunate, but it was not my fault — a shark 
coming by saw him flapping, and snapped him up. 
And since then I have lived all alone — 

‘ With a fal-lal-la-lady.’ 

And soon I shall be gone, and nobody will miss me ; 
and then the poor stone will be left all alone.’’ 

‘‘ But, please, which is the way to Shmy Wall ?’• 
said Tom. Oh, you must go, my little dear — you 
must go. Let me see — I am sure — that \s — really, 
my poor old brains are getting quite puzzled. Do 
you know, my little dear, I am afraid, if you want 
to know, you must ask some of these vulgar 
about it, for I have quite forgotten.” And the poor 
old Gairfowl began to cry tears of pure oil ; and 
Tom was quite sorry for her ; and for himself, too, 
for he was at his wits’ end whom to ask. 

But by there came a flock of petrels, who are 
Mother Carey’s own chickens ; and Tom thought 
them much prettier than Lady Gairfowl, and so per- 
haps they were ; for Mother Carey had had a great 
deal of fresh experience between the time that she 
invented the Gairfowl and the time that she invented 
them. They flitted along like a flock of black swal- 
lows, and hopped and skipped from wave to wave, 
lifting up their little feet behind them so daintily, 
and whistling to each other so tenderly, that Tom 
fell in love with them at once, and called them to 
know the way to Shiny Wall. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


187 


Shiny Wall ? Do yon want Shiny Wall ? Then 
come with us, and we will show you. We are 
Mother Carey’s own chickens, and she sends us out 
over all the seas, to show the good birds the way 
home.” 

Tom was delighted, and swam off to them, after he 
had made his bow to the Gairfowl. But she would 
not return his bow : but held herself bolt upright, 
and wept tears of oil as she sang : 

“ And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 

With a fal-lal-la-lady.” 

But she was wrong there ; for the stone was not 
left all alone : and the next time that Tom goes by 
it, he will see a sight worth seeing. 

The old Gairfowl is gone already : but there are 
better things come in her place ; and when Tom comes 
he will see the fishing-smacks anchored there in hun- 
dreds, from Scotland, and from Ireland, and from 
the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, and from all the 
Northern ports, full of the children of the old Norse 
Vikings, the masters of the sea. And the men will 
be hauling in the great cod by thousands, till 
their hands are sore from the lines ; and they will 
be making cod-liver oil and guano, and salting 
down the fish ; and there will be a man-of-war 
steamer there to protect them, and a lighthouse to 
show them the way ; and you and I, perhaps, shall 
go some day to the Allalonestone to the great sum- 
mer sea-fair, and dredge strange creatures such as 
man never saw before ; and we shall hear the sail- 
ors boast that it is not the worst jewel in Queen 
Victoria’s crown, for there are eighty miles of cod- 


188 


TR'E WATER-BABIES. 


bank, and food for all the poor folk in the land. 
That is what Tom will see, and perhaps you and I 
shall see it too. And then we shall not be sorry be- 
cause we cannot get a Gairfowl to stuff, much less 
find Gairfowl enough to drive them into stone pens 
and slaughter them, as the old Norsemen did, or 
drive them on board along a plank till the ship was 
victualed with them, as the old English and French 
rovers used to do, of whom dear old Hakluyt tells : 
but we shall remember what Tennyson says : how 

“ The old order changeth, giving place to the new, 

And God fulfils himself in many ways,’’ 

And now Tom was all agog to start for Shiny 
Wall ; but the petrels said no. They must go first 
to Allfowlsness, and wait there for the gathering of 
all the sea-birds, before they start for their summer 
breeding-places far away in the Northern Isles ; 
and there they would be sure to find some birds 
which were going to Shiny Wall ; but where All- 
fowlsness was, he must promise never to tell, lest 
men should go there and shoot the birds, and stuff 
them, and put them into stupid museums, instead 
of leaving them to play and breed and work in 
Mother Carey’s water-garden, where they ought 
to be. 

So where Allfowlsness is nobody must know ; and 
all that is to be said about it is, that Tom waited 
there many days ; and he saw a very curious sight. 
On the rabbit burrows on the shore there gathered 
hundreds of hoodie-crows. And they made such a 
noise that Tom came on shore and went up to see 
what was the matter. And there he found them 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 189 

holding their great caucus, which they hold every 
year in the North ; and all their stump-orators were 



speechifying ; and for a tribune, the speaker stood 
on an old sheep’s skull. 


190 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


And they cawed and cawed, and boasted of all 
the clever things they had done ; how many lambs’ 
eyes they had picked out, and how many dead bul- 
locks they had eaten, and how many young grouse 
they had swallowed whole, and how many grouse- 
eggs they had flown away with, stuck on the point 
of their bills, which is the hoodie-crow’s particularly 
clever feat, of which he is as proud as a gipsy is of 
doing the hokanybaro ; and what that is, I won’t 
tell you. 

And at last they brought out the prettiest, neatest 
young lady -crow that ever was seen, and set her in 
the middle, and all began abusing and bullj^ragging 
at her, because she had stolen no grouse-eggs, and 
had actually dared to say that she would not steal 
any. So she was to be tried publicly by their laws 
(for the hoodies always try some offenders in their 
great yearly parliament). And there she stood in 
the middle, in her black gown and gray hood, look- 
ing as meek and as neat as a Quakeress, and they all 
bawled at her at once — 

And it was in vain that she pleaded — 

That she did not like grouse-eggs .; that she could 
get her living very well without them ; that she 
was afraid to eat them, for fear of the game- 
keepers ; that she had not the heart to eat them, 
because the grouse were such pretty, kind, jolly 
birds ; and a dozen reasons more. 

For all the other scaul-crows set upon her, and 
pecked her to death there and then, before Tom 
could come to help her ; and then flew away, proud 
of what they had done. Now, was not this a scan- 
dalous transaction ? 

But they are true republicans, these hoodies, who 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LAND-BABT, 191 

do every one just what he likes, and make other 
people do so, too ; so that, for any freedom of speech, 
thought, or action which is allowed among them, 
they might as well be American citizens of the new 
school. 

But the fairies took the good crow, and gave her 
nine new sets of feathers running, and turned her 
at last into the most beautiful bird of paradise with 
a green velvet suit and a long tail, and sent her to 
eat fruit in the Spice Islands, where cloves and 
nutmegs grow. 

And Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid settled her account 
with the wicked hoodies. For, as they flew away, 
what should they And but a nasty dead dog?— on 
which they all set to work, pecking and gobbling 
and cawing and quarreling to their liearts’ content. 
But the moment afterwards they all threw up their 
bills into the air, and gave one screech ; and then 
turned head over heels backward, and fell down 
dead, one hundred and twenty-three of them at 
once. For why ? The fairy had told the game- 
keeper in a dream to All the dead dog full of strych- 
nine ; and so he did. 

And after a while the birds began to gather at 
Allfowlsness, in thousands and tens of thousands, 
blackening all the air ; swans and brant geese, 
harlequins and eiders, harolds and garganeys,. 
smews and goosanders, divers and loons, grebes and 
dovekies, auks and razor-bills, gannets and petrels, 
skuas and terns, with gulls beyond all naming or 
numbering ; and they puddled and washed and 
splashed and combed and brushed themselves on the- 
sand, till the shore was white with feathers ; and 
they quacked and clucked and gabbled and chattered 


192 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


and screamed and whooped as they talked over 
matters with their friends, and settled where they 
were to go and breed that summer, till you might 
have heard them ten miles off ; and lucky it was 
for them that there was no one to hear them but 
the old keeper, who lived all alone upon the Ness, 
in a turf hut thatched with heather and fringed 
round with great stones flung across the roof by 
bent ropes, lest the winter gales should blow the 
hut right away. But he never minded the birds 
nor hurt them, because they were not in season ; 
indeed, he minded but two things in the world, and 
these were his Bible and his grouse ; for he was as 
good an old Scotchman as ever knit stockings on a 
winter’s night : only, when all the birds were going, 
he toddled out, and took off his cap to them, and 
wished them a merry journey and a safe return ; 
and then gathered up all the feathers which they 
had left, and cleaned them to sell down south, and 
make feather-beds for stuffy people to lie on. 

Then the petrels asked this bird and that whether 
they would take Tom to Shiny Wall : but one set 
was going to Sutherland, and one to the Shetlands, 
and one to Norway, and one to Spitzbergen, and 
one to Iceland, and one to Greenland : but none 
would go to Shiny Wall. So the good-natured 
petrels said that they would show him part of the 
way themselves, but they were only going as far as 
Jan Mayen’s Land ; and after that he must shift 
for himself. ’ 

And then all the birds rose up, and streamed 
away in long black lines, north and northeast, and 
northwest, across the bright blue summer sky ; and 
their cry was like ten thousand packs of hounds and 


A FAIHr TALE FOB A LAND-BABY. 


193 


ten thousand peals of bells. Only the puffins stayed 
behind, and killed the young rabbits, and laid their 
eggs in the rabbit burrows ; which was rough prac- 
tise, certainly ; but a man must see to his own 
family. 

And, as Tom and the petrels went northeastward, 
it began to blow right hard ; for the old gentleman 
in the gray greatcoat, who looks after the big copper 
boiler, in the gulf of Mexico, had got behindhand 
with his work ; so Mother Carey had sent an elec- 
tric message to him for more steam ; and now the 
steam was coming, as much in an hour as ought to 
have come in a week, puffing and roaring and 
swishing and swirling, till you could not see where 
the sky ended and the sea began. But Tom and 
the petrels never cared, for the gale was right abaft, 
and away they went over the crests of the billows, 
merry as so many flying-fish. 

But they saw an ugly sight — the black side of a 
great ship, water-logged in the trough of the sea. 
Her funnel and her masts were overboard, and 
swayed and surged under her lee ; her decks were 
swept as clean as a barn floor, and there was no 
living soul on board. The petrels flew up to her, 
and wailed round her ; for they were very sorry, 
indeed, and also they expected to find some salt 
pork ; and Tom scrambled on board of her and 
looked round, frightened and sad. 

And there, in a little cot, lashed tight under the 
bulwark, lay a baby, fast asleep ; the very same 
baby, Tom saw at once, which he had seen in the 
singing lady’s arms. He went up to it, and wanted 
to wake it ; but, behold, from under the cot jumped 
a little black and tan terrier dog, and began bark- 

13 


194 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


ing and snapping at Tom, and would not let him 
touch the cot. 

Tom knew the dog’s teeth could not hurt him : 
but at least it could shove him away, and did ; and 
he and the dog fought and struggled, for he wanted 
to help the baby, and did not want to throw the 
poor dog overboard ; but, as they were struggling, 
there came a tall green sea, and walked in over the 
weather side of the ship, and swept them all into the 
waves. 

‘‘Oh, the baby !” screamed Tom : but the next 
moment he did not scream at all ; for he saw the 
cot settling down through the green water, with the 
baby smiling in it, fast asleep ; and he saw the 
fairies come up from below, and carry baby and 
cradle gently down in their soft arms ; and then he 
knew it was all right, and that there would be a new 
water-baby in St. Brandan’s Isle. 

And the poor little dog ? Why, after he had kicked 
and coughed a little, he sneezed so hard that he 
sneezed himself clean out of his skin, and turned 
into a water-dog, and jumped and danced round 
Tom, and ran over the crests of the waves, and 
snapped at the jelly-fish and the mackerel, and 
followed Tom the whole way to the Other-end-of-No- 
where. 

Then they went on again till they began to see the 
of peak Jan Mayen’s Land, standing up like a white 
sugar-loaf, two miles above the clouds. 

And there they fell in with a white flock of molly- 
mocks, who were feeding on a dead whale. “ These 
are the fellows to show you the way,” said Mother 
Carey’s chickens; “we cannot help you farther 
north. We don’t like to get among the ice pack for 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


195 


fear it should nip our toes : but the molly dare fly 
anywhere.’’ 

So the petrels called to the mollys : but they 
were so busy and greedy, gobbling and pecking and 
spluttering and flghting over the blubber, that they 
did not take the least notice. Come, come,” said 
the petrels, you 
lazy greedy lubbers, 
this young gentle 
man is going to 
Mother Carey, and, 
if you don't attend 
on him, you won’t 
earn your discharge 
from her, you 
know.” 

Greedy we are,” 
says a great fat old 
molly, ‘ ‘ but lazy we 
ain’t ; and, as for 
lubbers, we’re no 
more lubbers than 
you. Let’s have a 
look at the lad.” 

And he flapped 
right into Tom’s 
face, and stared at 
him in an impudent 
way (for the mollys 
are audacious fellows, as all whalers know), and then 
asked him where he hailed from, and what land he 
sighted last. 

And, when Tom told him, he seemed pleased, and 
said he was a good plucked one to have got so far. 



196 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


^^Come along, lads,” he said to the rest, ‘‘and 
give this little chap a cast over the pack, for 
Mother Carey’s sake. We’ve eaten blubber enough 
for to-day, and we’ll e’en work out a bit of our time 
by helping the lad.” So the inollys took Tom up on 
their backs, and flew off with him, laughing and 
joking — and oh, how they did smell of train oil ! 

“Who are you, you jolly birds?” asked Tom. 
“We are the spirits of the old Greenland skippers 
who hunted here right whales and horse- whales, full 
hundreds of years agone. But, because we were 
saucy and greedy, we were all turned into mollys, 
to eat whale’s blubber all our days. But lubbers 
we are none, and could sail a ship now against any 
man in the North seas, though we don’t hold with 
this new-fangled steam. And it’s a shame of those 
black imps of petrels to call us so ; but because 
they’re her grace’s pets, they think they may say 
anything they like.” 

“ And who are you ?” asked Tom of him, for he 
saw that he was the king of all the birds. 

“ My name is Hendrick Hudson, and a right good 
skipper was I ; and my name will last to the world’s 
end, in spite of all the wrong I did. For I discovered 
Hudson Kiver, and I named Hudson’s Bay ; and 
many have come in my wake that dared not have 
shown me the way. But I was a hard man in my 
time, that’s truth, and stole the poor Indians off the 
coast of Maine, and sold them for slaves down in 
Virginia ; and at last I was so cruel to my sailors, 
here in these very seas, that they set me adrift in 
an open boat, and I never was heard of more. So 
now I’m the king of all mollys, till I’ve worked out 
my time.” 


A FAIBY TALE FOR A LANB-BABY. 197 

And now they came to the edge of the pack, and 
beyond it they could see Shiny Wall looming, through 
mist, and snow, and storm. But the pack rolled 
horribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought 
and roared, and leaped upon each other’s backs, and 
ground each other to powder, so that Tom was 
afraid to venture among them, lest he should be 



ground to powder too. And he was the more afraid, 
when he saw lying among the ice pack the wrecks 
of many a gallant ship ; some with masts and yards 
all standing, some with the seamen frozen fast on 
board. Alas, alas, for them ! They were all true 
hearts ; and they came to their end like good knights- 


198 


THE WATER BABIES, 


errant, in searching for the white gate that never 
was opened yet. 

But the good mollys took Tom and his dog up, 
and flew with them safe over the pack and the 
roaring ice giants, and set them down at the foot of 
Shiny Wall. ‘‘And where is the gate ? ’’ asked Tom. 
“ There is no gate,” said the mollys. “ No gate ? ” 
cried Tom, aghast. “ None ; never a crack of one, 
and that’s the whole of the secret, as better fellows, 
lad, than you have found to their cost ; and if there 
had been, they’d have killed by now every right 
whale that swims the sea.” 

“ What am I to do, then ? ” 

“ Dive under the floe, to be sure, if you have 
pluck.” 

“ I’ve not come so far to turn now,” said Tom; 
“so here goes for a header.” 

“A lucky voyage to you, lad,” said the mollys ; 
“we knew you were one of the right sort. So 
good-by.” 

“Why don’t you come, too ?” asked Tom. 

But the mollys only wailed sadly, “We can’t go 
yet, we can’t go yet,” and flew away over the pack. 

So Tom dived under the great white gate which 
never was opened yet, and went on in black dark- 
ness, at the bottom of the sea, for seven days and 
seven nights. And yet he was not a bit frightened. 
Why should he be ? He was a brave lad, whose 
business is to go out and see all the world. 

And at last he saw the light, and clear water 
overhead ; and up he came a thousand fathoms, 
among clouds of sea-moths, which fluttered round 
his head. There were moths with pink heads and 
wungs and opal bodies, that flapped about slowly ; 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


199 


moths with brown wings, that flapped about 
quickly ; yellow shrimps, that hopped and skipped 
most quickly of all ; and jellies of all the colors in 
the world, that neither hopped nor skipped, but 
only dawdled and yawned, and would not get out 
of his way. The dog snapped at them till his jaws 
were tired ; but Tom hardly minded them at all, he 
was so eager to get to the top of the water, and see 
the pool where the good whales go. 

And a very large pool it was, miles and miles 
across, though the air was so clear that the ice cliffs 
on the opposite side looked as if they were close at 
hand. All round it the ice cliffs rose, in walls and 
spires and battlements, and caves and bridges, and 
stories and galleries, in which the ice fairies live, 
and drive away the storms and clouds, that Mother 
Carey’s pool may lie calm from year’s end to year’s 
end. And the sun acted policeman, and walked 
round outside every day, peeping just over the top 
of the ice wall, to see that all went right ; and now 
and then he played conjuring tricks, or had an ex- 
hibition of fireworks, to amuse the ice-fairies. For 
he would make himself into four or five suns at 
once, or paint the sky with rings and crosses and 
crescents of white fire, and stick himself in the mid- 
dle of them, and wink at the fairies ; and I daresay 
they were much amused ; for anything’s fun in 
the country. 

And there the good whales lay, the happy, sleepy 
beasts, upon the still, oily sea. They were all right 
whales, you must know, and finners, and razor- 
backs, and bottle-noses, and spotted sea-unicorns 
with long ivory horns. But the sperm whales are 
such raging, ramping, roaring, rumbustious fellows 


200 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


that, if Mother Carey let them in, there would be 
no more peace in Peacepool. So she packs them 
away by themselves at the South Pole, two hun- 
dred and sixty-three miles south-southeast of Mount 
Erebus, the great volcano in the ice ; and there 
the}^ butt each other with their ugly noses, day and 
night, from year’s end to year’s end. 

But here there were only good and quiet beasts, 
lying about like the black hulls of sloops and blow- 
ing every now and then jets of white steam, or 
sculling round with their huge mouths cpc n, for the 
sea-moths to swim down their throats. There were 
no threshers there to thresh their poor old backs, 
or sword-fish to stab their stomachs, or saw-fish to 
rip them up, or ice-sharks to bite lumps out of their 
sides, or whalers to harpoon and lance them. They 
were safe and happy there ; and only had to wait 
quietly in Peacepool till Mother Carey sent for them 
to make them out of old beasts into new. 

Tom swam up to the nearest whale, and asked 
the way to Mother Carey. There she sits in the 
middle,” says the whale. • Tom looked ; but he 
could see nothing in the middle of the pool but one 
peaked iceberg ; and he said so. That’s Mother 
Carey,” said the whale, as you will find when you 
get to her. There she sits making old beasts into 
new all the year round.” 

How does she do that ?” — That’s her concern, 
not mine,” said the old whale ; and yawned so wide 
(for he was very large) that there swam into his 
mouth 943 sea-moths, 13,846 jelly-fish no bigger than 
pins’ heads, a string of salpse nine yards long, and 
forty-three little ice-crabs, who gave each other a 
parting pinch all round, tucked their legs under 


i 













202 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


their stomachs, and determined to die decently, like 
Julius Caesar. 

“I suppose,” said Tom, ‘‘she cuts up a great 
whale like you into a whole shoal of porpoises ? ” 
At which the old whale laughed so violently that he 
coughed up all the creatures ; who swam away 
again, very thankful at having escaped out of that 
terrible whalebone net of his, from which bourne 
no traveler returns; and Tom went on to the iceberg, 
wondering. 

And, when he came near it, it took the form of the 
grandest old lady he had ever seen — a white marble 
lady sitting on a white marble throne. And from 
the foot of the throne there swam away, out and 
out into the sea, millions of new-born creatures, of 
more shapes and colors than man ever dreamed. 
And they were Mother Carey’s children, whom she 
makes out of the sea- water all day long. He ex- 
pected, of course — like some grown people who 
ought to know better — to find her snipping, piecing, 
fitting, stitching, cobbling, basting, filing, planing, 
hammering, turning, polishing, molding, measur-. 
ing, chiseling, clipping, and so forth, as men do 
when they go to work to make anything. 

But, instead of that, she sat quite still with her 
chin upon her hand, looking down into the sea with 
two great grand blue eyes, as blue as the sea itself. 
Her hair was as white as the snow — for she was 
very old — in fact, as old as anything which you are 
likely to come across, except the difference between 
right and wrong. 

And when she saw Tom, she looked at him very 
kindly. “What do you want, my little man? It 
is a long time since I have seen a water-baby here.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 203 

Tom told her his errand, and asked the way to the 
Other-end-of-N o where. “You ought to know your- 
self, for you have been there already.” 

“ Have I, ma’am ? I’m sure I forget all about it.” 

“Then look at me.” 

And, as Tom looked into her great blue eyes, he 
recollected the way 
perfectly. Now, 
was not that very 
strange ? 

“Thank you, 
ma’am,” said Tom. 

“I won’t trouble 
your ladyship any 
more ; I hear you 
are very busy.” 

“I am never 
more busy than 
I am now,” she 
said, without stir- 
ripg a finger. — “ I 
heard, ma’am, that 
you were always 
making new beasts 
out of old.” 

‘ ‘ So people fancy. 

But I am not going 
to trouble myself to 
make things, my 
little dear. I sit 
here and make them make themselves.” 

“You are a clever fairy,” thought Tom. And 
he was quite right. That is a grand trick of good 
old Mother Carey’s, and a grand answer, which she 



204 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


has had occasion to make several times to imperti- 
nent people. 

There was once, for instance, a fairy who was so 
clever that she found out how to make butterflies. 
I don’t mean sham ones ; no : but real live ones, 
which would fly, and eat, and lay eggs, and do 
everything that they ought ; and she was so proud 
of her skill that she went flying straight off to the 
North Pole, to boast to Mother Carey how she could 
make butterflies. 

But Mother Carey laughed. “Know, silly 
child,” she said, “ that any one can make things, if 
they will take time and trouble enough : but it is 
not every one who, like me, can make things make 
themselves.” 

But people do not yet believe that Mother Carey 
is as clever as all that comes to ; and they will not till 
they, too, go the journey to the Other-end-of-No- 
where. “ And now, my i3retty little man,” said 
Mother Carey, “ you are sure you know the way to 
the Other-end-of-Nowhere ? ” 

Tom thought ; but he had forgotten it utterly. 

“ That is because you took your eyes off me. ” Tom 
looked at her again, and recollected ; and then 
looked away, and forgot in an instant. 

“ But what am I to do, ma’am ? For I can’t keep 
looking at you when I am somewhere else.” 

“You must do without me, as most people have 
to do, for nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths 
of their lives ; and look at the dog instead ; for he 
knows the way well enough, and will not forget it. 
Besides, you may meet some very queer-tempered 
people there, who will not let you pass without this 
passport of mine, which you must hang round your 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 205 

neck and take care of ; and, of course, as the dog 
will always go behind you, you must go the whole 
way backward.” 

“ Backward ! ” cried Tom. Then I shall not be 
able to see my way.” 

‘‘On the contrary, if you look forward, you will 
not see a step before you, and be certain to go 
wrong ; but, if you look behind you, and watch 
carefully whatever you have passed, and especially 
keep your eye on the dog, who goes by instinct, and 
therefore can’t go wrong, then you will know what 
is coming next, as plainly as if you saw it in a 
looking-glass.” 

Tom was very much astonished : but he obeyed 
her, for he had learned always to believe what the 
fairies told him. “So it is, my dear child,” said 
Mother Carey ; “ and I will tell you a story, which 
will show you that I am perfectly right, as it is my 
custom to be. 

“ Once, there were two brothers. One was called 
Prometheus, because he always looked before him, 
and boasted that he was wise beforehand. The 
other was called Epimetheus, because he always 
looked behind him, and did not boast at all ; but 
said humbly, that he had sooner prophesy after the 
event. 

“ Well, Prometheus was a very clever fellow, of 
course, and invented all sorts of wonderful things. 
But, unfortunately, when they were set to work, ta 
work was just what they would not do ; wherefore 
very little has come of them, and very little is left 
of them. 

“But Epimetheus was a very slow fellow, and 
went among men for a clod, and a muff, and ^ 


206 


THE WATEE-BABIES, 


milksop, and a slowcoach, and a bloke, and a boodle, 
and so forth. And very little he did, for many 
years : but what he did, he never had to do over 
again. 

‘‘ And what happened at last ? There came to the 
two brothers the most beautiful creature that ever 
was seen. Pandora by name ; which means. All the 
gifts of the gods. But because she had a strange 
box in her hand, this fanciful, forecasting, suspicious, 
prudential, theoretical, deductive, prophesying Pro- 
metheus, who was always settling what was going 
to happen, would have nothing to do with pretty 
Pandora and her box. 

‘‘But Epimetheus . took her and it, as he took 
everything that came ; and married her for better 
for worse, as every man ought, whenever he has 
even the chance of a good wife. And they opened 
the box between them, to see what was inside. 
“ And out flew all the ills which flesh is heir to ; all 
the children of the four great bogies. Self-will, 
Ignorance, Fear, and Dirt — for instance : 

Measles, monks, scarlatina, idols, hooping-coughs, 
famines, quacks, unpaid bills, tight stays, potatoes, 
popes, wars, peacemongers, bad wine, despots, 
demagogues, and, worst of all, naughty boys and 
girls. But one thing remained at the bottom of the 
box, and that was, Hope. 

“ So Epimetheus got a great deal of trouble, as 
most men do in this world : but he got the three 
best things in the world into the bargain — a good 
wife and experience, and hope : while Prometheus 
had just as much trouble, vflth nothing beside, save 
fancies spun out of his own brain, as a spider spins 
her web out of her stomach. 






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208 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


‘‘Prometheus kept on looking before him so far 
ahead, that as he was running about with a box of 
lucifers (which were the only useful things he ever 
invented, and do as much harm as good), he trod on 
his own nose, and tumbled down whereby he set 
the Thames on fire ; and they have hardly put 
it out again yet. So he had to be chained to the 
top of a mountain, with a vulture by him to give 
him a peck whenever he stirred, lest he should 
turn the world upside down with his prophecies and 
theories. 

“But stupid old Epimetheus went working and 
grubbing on, with the help of his wife Pandora, 
always looking behind him to see what had happened, 
till he really learned to know now and then what 
would happen next ; and understood so well which 
side his bread was buttered, and which way the cat 
jumped, that he began to make things which would 
work, and go on working, too ; to till and drain 
the ground, and to make looms, and ships, and 
railroads, and steam plows, and electric telegraphs; 
and to foretell famine, and bad weather, and the 
price of stocks, and (what is hardest of all) the next 
vagary of the great idol Whirligig, which some call 
Public Opinion ; till at last he grew as rich as a 
Jew and as fat as a farmer, and people thought 
twice before they meddled with him, but only once 
before they asked him to help them ; for, because 
he earned his money well, he could afford to spend 
it well likewise. 

“ And his children are the men of science, who 
get good lasting work done in the world ; but the 
children of Prometheus are the fanatics, and the 
theorists, and the bigots, and the bores, and the 


A FAIHr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


209 


noisy, windy people, who go telling silly folk what 
will happen, instead of looking to see what has 
happened already.” 

Now, was not Mother Carey’s a ’wonderful story ? 
And, I am happy to say, Tom believed it, every 
word. 

For so it happened to Tom likewise. He was very 



sorely tried ; for though, by keeping the dog to 
heels (or rather to toes, for he had to walk back- 
ward), he could see pretty well which way the 
dog was hunting, yet it was much slower work to go 
backwards than to go forwards. But, no sooner 
had he got out of Peacepool than there came run- 
ning to him all the conjurers, fortune-tellers, 
astrologers, prophesiers, projectors, prestigiators, as 


210 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


many as were in those parts (and there are too 
many of them everywhere), Old Mother Shipton on 
her broomstick, with Merlin, Thomas the Ehymer, 
Gerbertiis, Rabanus Maurus, Nostradamus, Zadkiel, 
Raphael, Moore, Old Nixon, and a good many in 
black coats and white ties who might have known 
better, considering in what century they were born, 
all bawling and screaming at him, Look-a-head, 
only look-a-head ; and we will show you what man 
never saw before, and right away to the end of the 
world ! ” 

But I am proud to say that, though Tom had not 
been to Cambridge he was such a little dogged, 
hard, gnarly, foursquare brick of an English boy, 
that he never turned his head round once all the 
way from Peacepool to the Other-end-of-Nowhere : 
hut kept his eye on the dog, and let him pick out the 
scent, hot or cold, straight or crooked, wet or dry, 
up hill or down dale ; by which means he never 
made a single mistake, and saw all the wonderful 
and hitherto by-no-mortal-man-imagined things, 
which it is my duty to relate to you in the next 
chapter. 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


211 


CHAPTEE VIII. AND LAST. 



ERE begins the 
never - to - b e - too- 
much - studied ac- 
count of the nine- 
hundred-and-ninety- 
ninth part of the 
wonderful things 
which Tom saw on 
his journey to the 
Other - end - of - No- 
where ; which all 
good little children 
are requested to 
read ; that, if ever 
they get to the 
Other - end - of - No- 
where, as they may 
very probably do, 
they may not burst 
out laughing, or try 
to run away, or do 
any other silly vul- 
gar thing which may 

oifend Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. 

Now, as soon as Tom had left Peacepool, he came 
to the white lap of the great sea-mother, ten thou- 
sand fathoms deep ; where she makes world-pap all 


212 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


day long, for the steam-giants to knead, and the 
fire-giants to bake, till it has risen and hardened 
into mountain-loaves and island-cakes. 

And there Tom was very near being kneaded up 
in the world-pap, and turned into a fossil water- 
baby ; which would have astonished the Geological 
Society some thousands of years hence. For, as he 
walked along in the silence of the sea-twilight, on 
the soft white ocean floor, he was aware of a hissing, 
and a roaring, and a thumping, and a pumping, as 
of all the steam-engines in the world at once. ' And, 
when he came near, the water grew boiling hot ; 
not that that hurt him in the least : but it also 
grew as foul as gruel ; and every moment he 
stumbled over dead shells, and fish, and sharks, 
and seals, and whales, which had been killed by the 
hot water. 

At last he came to the great sea-serpent himself, 
lying dead at the bottom ; and as he was too thick 
to scramble over, Tom walked round him three- 
quarters of a mile and more, which put him out of 
his path sadly. When he had got round, he came 
to the place called Stop. And there he stopped, and 
just in time. 

For he was on the edge of a vast hole in the 
bottom of the sea, up which was rushing and roar- 
ing clear steam enough to work all the engines in 
the world at once ; so clear, indeed, that it was 
quite light at moments ; and Tom could see almost 
up to the top of the water above, and down below 
into the pit for nobody knows how far. But, as 
soon as he bent his head over the edge, he got such 
a rap on the nose from pebbles, that he jumped 
back again ; for the steam, as it rushed up, rasped 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


213 


away the sides of the hole, and hurled it up into the 
sea in a shower of mud and gravel and ashes ; and 
then it spread all around, and sank again, and 
covered in the dead fish so fast, that before Tom 
had stood there five minutes he was buried in silt 
up to his ankles, and began to be afraid that he 
should have been buried alive. 

And perhaps he would have been, but that while 
he was thinking, the whole piece of ground on 
which he stood was torn off and blown upwards, 
and away flew Tom a mile up through the sea, 
wondering what was coming next. At last he 
stopped — thump ! and found himself tight in the 
legs of the most wonderful bogy which he had ever 
seen. 

It had I don’t know how many wings, as big as 
the sails of a windmill, and spread out in a ring 
like them ; and with them it hovered over the steam 
which rushed up, as a ball hovers over the top of a 
fountain. And for every wing above it had a leg 
below, with a claw like a comb at the tip, and a 
nostril at the root ; and in the middle it had no 
stomach and one eye ; and as for its mouth, that 
was all on one side, as the madreporiform tubercle 
in a star-fish is. It was a very strange beast ; but 
no stranger than dozens which you may see. 

‘‘What do you want here,” it cried quite peevishly, 
“ getting in my way ?” and it tried to drop Tom : 
but he held on tight to its claws, thinking himself 
safer where he was. So Tom told him who he was, 
and what his errand was. And the thing winked 
its one eye, and sneered : “I am too old to be taken 
in in that way. You are come after gold — I know 
you are.” 


214 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


‘•Gold! What is gold ? Tom did not know; 
but the suspicious old bogy would not believe him. 

But after a while Tom began to understand a 
little. For, as the vapors came up out of the hole, 
the bogy smelt them with his nostrils, and combed 
them and sorted them with his combs ; and then, 
when they steamed up through them against his 
wings, they were changed into showers and streams 
of metal. From one wing fell gold-dust, and from 
another silver, and from another copper, and from 
another tin, and from another lead, and so on, and 
sank into the soft mud, into veins and cracks, and 
hardened there. Whereby it c^omes to pass that the 
rocks are full of metal. 

But, all of a sudden, somebody shut off the steam 
below, arid the hole was left empty in an instant ; 
and then down rushed the water into the hole, in 
such a whirlpool that the bogy spun round and 
round as fast as a teetotum. But that was all in 
his day’s work, like a fair fall with the hounds ; so 
all he did was to say to Tom, — “ Now is your time, 
youngster, to get down, if you are in earnest, which 
I don’t believe.” 

“ You’ll soon see,” said Tom ; and away he went, 
as bold as Baron Munchausen, and shot down the 
rushing cataract like a salmon at Ballisodare. And, 
when he got to the bottom, he swam till he was 
washed on shore safe upon the Other-end-of-No- 
where ; and he found it, to his surprise, as most other 
people do, much more like This-end-of-Somewhere 
than he had been in the habit of expecting. 

And first he went through Waste-paper-land, 
where all the stupid books lie in heaps, up hill and 
down dale, like leaves in a winter wood ; and there 


A FAIHr TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 215 

he saw people digging and grubbing among them, 
to make worse books out of bad ones, and thrashing 
chaff to save the dust of it ; and a very good trade 
they drove thereby, especially among children. 

Then he went by the sea of slops, to the mountain 
of messes, and the territory of tuck, where the 
ground was very sticky, for it was all made of bad 
toffee (not Everton toffee, of course), and full of deep 
cracks and holes choked with wind-fallen fruit, and 
green gooseberries, and sloes, and crabs, and whin- 
berries, and hips and haws, and all the nasty things 
which little children will eat, if they can get them. 
But the fairies hide them out of the way in that 
country as fast as they can, and very hard work 
they have, and of very little use it is. For as fast 
as they hide away the old trash foolish and wicked 
people make fresh trash full of lime and poisonous 
paints, and actually go and steal receipts out of old 
Madame Science’s big book to invent poisons for 
little children, and sell them at fairs and tuck-shops. 
Very well. Let them go on. Dr. Letheby and Dr. 
Hassall cannot catch them, though they are setting 
traps for them all day long. But the Fairy with 
the birch-rod will catch them, and make them begin 
at one corner of their shops, and eat their way out 
at the other : by which time they will have got such 
stomach-aches as will cure them of poisoning little 
children. 

Next he saw all the little people in the world, 
writing all the little books in the world, about all 
the other little people in the world ; probably be- 
cause they had no great people to write about ; and 
if the names of the books were not Squeeky, nor the 
Pumplighter, nor the Narrow Narrow World, nor 


216 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


the Hills of the Chattermuch, nor the Children’s 
Twaddeday, why then they were something else. 
And all the rest of the little people read the books, 
and thought themselves each as good as the Presi- 
dent ; and perhaps they were right, for eA^ery one 
knows his own business best. But Tom thought he 
would sooner have a jolly good fairy tale, about 
Jack the Giant-killer or Beauty and the Beast, 
which taught him something that he didn’t know 
already. 

Then Tom came to a famous island, which was 
called, in the days of the great Gulliver, the Isle of 
Laputa. But Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has named it 
over again, the Isle of Tomtoddies, all heads and no 
bodies. And when Tom came near it he heard such 
a grumbling and grunting and growling and. Avail- 
ing and weeping and whining that he thought 
people must be ringing little pigs, or cropping pup- 
pies’ ears, or drowning kittens : but when he came 
nearer still, he began to hear words among the 
noise ; which was the Tomtoddies’ song which they 
sing morning and evening, and all night, too, to 
their great idol Examination — 

“ I can't learn my lesson : the examiner’s coming ! ” 

And that was the only song which they knew. 

And Avhen Tom got on shore the first thing he 
saw was a great pillar, on one side of Avhich Avas 
inscribed, Playthings not allowed here ; ” at which 
he Avas so shocked that he would not stay to see 
what Avas written on the other side. Then he looked 
round for the people of the island : but instead of 
men, women, and children, he found nothing but 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


217 


turnips and radishes, beet and mangold wurzel, 
without a single green leaf among them, and half 
of them burst and decayed, with toadstools growing 
out of them. Those which were left began crying 
to Tom, in half a dozen different languages at once, 
and all of them badly spoken, “ I can’t learn my 
lesson ; do come and help me ! ” And one cried, 

Can you show me how to extract this square 
root ? ” 

And another, ‘^Can you tell me the name of a 
place that nobody ever heard of, where nothing ever 
happened, in a country which has not been discov- 
ered yet ? ” 

And another, Can you show me how to cor- 
rect this hopelessly corrupt passage of Graidioco- 
losyrtus Tabenniticus, or the cause why crocodiles 
have no tongues ? ” 

And so on, and so on, and so on, till one would 
have thought they were all trying for tide-waiters’ 
places, or cornetcies in the heavy dragoons. 

And what good on earth will it do you if I did 
tell you?” quoth Tom. Well, they didn’t know 
that : all they knew was the examiner was coming. 
Then Tom stumbled on the hugest and softest nim- 
blecomequick turnip you every saw filling a hole in 
a crop of swedes, and it cried to him, “ Can you tell 
me anything at all about anything you like ? ” 

About what?” says Tom. — “About anything 
you like ; for as fast as I learn things I forget them 
again. So my mama says that my intellect is not 
adapted for methodic science, and says that I must 
go for general information.” 

Tom told him that he did not know general infor- 
mation, nor any officers in the army : only he had 


218 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


a friend once that went for a drummer ; but he 
could tell him a great many strange things which 
he had seen in his travels. So he told him, while 
the poor turnip listened very carefully ; and the 
more he listened, the more he forgot, and the more 
water ran out of him. 

Tom thought he was crying : but it was only his 
poor brains running away from being worked so 
hard ; and as Tom talked, the unhappy turnip 
streamed down all over with juice, and split and 
shrank till nothing was left of him but rind and 
water. Tom ran away in a fright, thinking he might 
be taken up for killing the turnip. 

But, on the contrary, the turnip’s parents were 
highly delighted, and considered him a saint and 
a martyr, and put up a long inscription over his 
tomb about his wonderful talents, early develop- 
ment, and unparalleled precocity. Were they not 
a foolish couple ? But there was a still more foolish 
couple next to them, who were beating a wretched 
little radish, no bigger than my thumb, for sullen- 
ness and obstinacy and wilful stupidity, and never 
knew that the reason why it couldn’t learn or hardly 
even speak was that there was a great worm inside it 
eating all its brains. But even they are no foolisher 
than some score of papas and mamas, who fetch the 
rod when they ought to fetch a new toy, and send 
to the dark cupboard instead of to the doctor. 

Tom was so puzzled and frightened with all he 
saw that he was longing to ask the meaning of it ; 
and at last he stumbled over a respectable old stick 
lying half-covered with earth. But a very stout 
and worthy stick it was, for it belonged to good 
Boger Ascham in old time, and he carved on its 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 219 

head King Edward the Sixth, with the Bible in his 
hand. '‘You see,” said the stick, “ there were as 
pretty little children once as you could wish to see, 
and might have been so still if the}’’ had been only 
left to grow up like human beings, and then handed 
over to me ; but their foolish fathers and mothers, 
instead of letting them pick flowers, and make dirt- 
pies, and get birds’ nests, and dance round the 
gooseberry bush, as little children should, kept them 
always at lessons, working, working, working, 
learning week-day lessons all week-days, and Sun- 
day lessons all Sunday, and weekly examinations 
every Saturday, and monthly examinations every 
month, and yearly examinations every year, every- 
thing seven times over, as if once was not enough, 
and enough as good as a feast — till their brains 
grew big, and their bodies grew small, and they 
were all changed into turnips, with little but water 
inside ; and still their foolish parents actually pick 
the leaves off them as fast as they grow, lest they 
should have anything green about them.” 

“Ah !” said Tom, “if dear Mrs. Doasyouwould- 
bedoneby knew of it she would send them a lot 
of tops, and balls, and marbles, and ninepins, and 
make them all as jolly as sand-boys.” 

“ It would be no use,” said the stick. “ They can’t 
play now, if they tried. Don’t you see how their 
legs have turned to roots and grown into the 
ground, by never taking any exercise, but snipping 
and moping always in the same place ? But here 
comes the Examiner-of-all-Examiners. So you had 
better get away, or he will examine you and your 
dog into the bargain, and set him to examine all 
the other dogs, and you to examine all the other 


220 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


water-babies. There is no escaping out of his 
hands, for he can go down chimneys, and through 
keyholes, up-stairs, down-stairs, in my lady’s cham- 
ber, examining all little boys, and the little boys’ 
tutors likewise. But when he is thrashed — so Mrs. 
Bedonebyasyoudid has promised me — I shall have 
the thrashing of him. If I don’t lay it on with a 
will it’s a pity.” 

Tom went off : but rather slowly and surlily ; for 
he was somewhat minded to face this same Exam- 
iner-of-all-Examiners ; but when he got near, he 
looked so big and burly and dictatorial, and shouted 
so loud to Tom to come and be examined, that Tom 
ran for his life, and the dog, too. And really it 
was time ; for the poor turnips, in their hurry and 
fright, crammed themselves so fast to be ready for 
the Examiner that they burst and popped by dozens 
all round him, and Tom thought he should he blown 
into the air, dog and all. 

As he went down to the shore he passed the poor 
turnip’s new tomb. But Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
had taken away the epitaph about talents and pre- 
cocity and development, and put up one of her own 
instead, which Tom thought much more sensible : 

“Instruction sore long time I bore, 

And cramming was in vain ; 

Till heaven did please my woes to ease, 

With water on the brain.” 

So Tom jumped into the sea, and swam on his 
way^ singing : 

“ Farewell, Tomtoddies all ; I thank my stars 
That nought I know save those three royal r's : 
Reading and riting sure, with rithmetick. 

Will help a lad of sense through thin and thick.” 


A FAIBV TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 22l 

Whereby you may see that Tom was no poet : but 
no more was John Bunyan, though he was as wise 
a man as you will meet in a month of Sundays. 

And next he came to Oldwivesfabledom, where 
the folks were all heathens, and worshiped a howl- 
ing ape. And there he found a little boy sitting in 
the middle of the road, and crying bitterly. ‘ ‘ What 
are you crying for?” said Tom. — “Because I am 
not as frightened as I could wish to be.” 

“ ^^ot frightened ? You are a queer little chap : 
but, if you want to be frightened, here goes — Boo ! ” 
“Ah,” said the boy, “ that is very kind of you ; 
but I don’t feel that it has made any impression.” 
Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp on him, 
fettle him over the head with a brick, or do anything 
which would give him the slightest comfort. 

But he only thanked Tom very civilly, in fine long 
words which he had heard other folk use, and which, 
therefore, he thought were fit and proper to use 
himself ; and cried on till his papa and mama 
came, and sent off for the Powwow man immediately. 
And a very good-natured gentleman and lady they 
were, though they were heathens ; and talked quite 
pleasantly to Tom about his travels, till the Powwow 
man arrived, with his thunderbox under his arm. 

And a well-fed, ill-favored gentleman he was, as 
ever served Her Majesty at Portland. Tom was a 
little frightened at first ; for he thought it was 
Grimes. But he soon saw his mistake : for Grimes 
always looked a man in the face ; and this fellow 
never did. And when he spoke, it was fire and 
smoke ; and when he sneezed, it was squibs and 
crackers ; and when he cried (which he did whenever 
it paid him), it was boiling pitch ; and some of it 


222 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


was sure to stick. ‘‘ Here we are again ! ” cried he, 
like the clown in a pantomime. ‘‘ S^o you can^t fee] 
frightened, my little dear — eh ? I’ll do that for you. 
I’ll make an impression on you ! Yah ! Boo ! 
Whirroo ! Hullabaloo ! ” 

And he rattled, thumped, brandished his thunder- 
box, yelled, shouted, raved, roared, stamped, and 
danced corrobory like any black fellow ; and then he 
touched a spring in the thunderbox, and out popped 
turnip-ghosts and magic-lanterns and pasteboard 
bogies and springheeled Jacks and sallaballas, with 
such a horrid din, clatter, clank, roll, rattle, and 
roar, that the little boy turned up the whites of his 
eyes, and fainted away. 

And at that his poor heathen papa and mama 
were as much delighted as if they had found a gold 
mine ; and fell dov/n upon their knees before the 
Powwow man, and gave him a palanquin with a 
pole of solid silver and curtains of cloth of gold ; and 
carried him about in it on their backs : but as soon 
as they had taken him up, the pole stuck to their 
shoulders, and they could not set him down any 
more, but carried him on willynilly, as Sindbad 
carried the old man of the sea : which was a pitiable 
sight to see ; for the father was a very brave officer, 
and wore two swords and a blue button ; and the 
mother was as pretty a lady as ever had pinched 
feet like a Chinese. But, they had chosen to do a 
foolish thing once too often ; so, by the laws of 
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, they had to go on doing it 
whether they chose or not, till the coming of the 
Coeqeigrues. 

Ah ! don’t you wish that some one would go and 
convert those poor heathens, and teach them not to 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 223 

frighten their little children into fits ? ‘ ^ Now, then, ” 
said the Powwow man to Tom, “ wouldn’t you like 
to he frightened, my little dear ? For I can see 
plainly that you are a very wicked, naughty, grace- 
less, reprobate boy.’’ 

^‘You’re another,” quoth Tom, very sturdily. 
And when the man ran at him, and cried Boo ! ” 
Tom ran at him in return, and cried Boo ! ” like- 
wise, right in his face, and set the little dog upon 
him ; and at his legs the dog went. At which, if you 
will believe it, the fellow turned tail, thunderbox and 
all, with a Woof ! ” like an old sow on the common ; 
and ran for his life, screaming, ‘‘Help! thieves I 
murder ! fire ! He is going to kill me ! I am a 
ruined man ! He will murder me ; and break, burn, 
and destroy my precious and invaluable thunderbox ; 
and then you will have no more thunder-showers in 
the land. Help ! help ! help 1 ” 

At which the papa and mama and all the people 
of Oldwivesfabledom flew at Tom, shouting, “ Oh, 
the wicked, impudent, hard-hearted boy I Beatliim, 
kick him, shoot him, drown him, hang him, burn 
him I ” and so forth : but luckily they had nothing 
to shoot, hang, or burn him with, for the fairies had 
hid all the killing-tackle out of the way ; so they 
could only pelt him with stones ; and some of the 
stones went clean through him, and came out the 
other side. But he did not mind that a bit ; for the 
holes closed up again as fast as they were made, 
because he was a water-baby. However, he was 
very glad when he was safe out of the country, for 
the noise there made him all but deaf. 

Then he came to a very quiet place, called 
Leaveheavenalone. And there the sun was drawing 


224 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


water out of the sea to make steam-threads, and the 
wind was twisting them up to make cloud-patterns, 
till they had worked between them the loveliest 
wedding- veil of Chantilly lace, and hung it up in 
their own Crystal Palace for any one to buy who 
could afford it ; while the good old sea never grudged, 
for she knew they would pay her back honestly. 
So the sun span, and the wind wove, and all went 
well wioh the great steam-loom ; as is likely, con- 
sidering — and considering — and considering — 

And at last, after innumerable adventures, each 
more wonderful than the last, he saw before him 
a huge building, much bigger, and — what is most 
surprising — a little uglier than a certain new lunatic 
asylum, but not built quite of the same materials. 
The walls of this building were built on an entirely 
different principle, which need not be described, as 
it has not yet been discovered. 

Tom walked towards this great building, wonder- 
ing what it was, and having a strange fancy that 
he might find Grimes inside it, till he saw running 
toward him, and shouting Stop ! ” three or four 
people, who, when they came nearer, were nothing 
else than policeman’s truncheons, running along 
without legs or arms. 

Tom was not astonished. He was long past that. 
Besides, he had seen the naviculae in the water 
move, nobody knows how, a hundred times, with- 
out arms, or legs, or anything to stand in their 
stead. Neither was he frightened ; for he had been 
doing no harm. So he stopped ; and, when the fore- 
most truncheon came up and asked his business, he 
showed Mother Carey’s pass ; and the truncheon 
looked at it in the oddest fashion ; for he had one 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


225 


6y6 in tlie middle of his upper end, so that when he 
looked at anything, being quite stiff, he had to 
slope himself, and poke himself, till it was a won- 
der why he did not tumble over ; hut, being quite 



226 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


“ All right — pass on,” saiJ he at last. And then 
he added : ‘‘I had better go with you, young man.” 
And Tom had no objection, for such company was 
both respectable and safe ; so the truncheon coiled 
its thong neatly round its handle, to prevent trip- 
ping itself up — for the thong had got loose in run- 
ning — and marched on by Tom’s side. “ Why have 
you no policeman to carry you ?” asked Tom after 
a while. ‘ ' Because we are not like those clumsy- 
made truncheons in the land- world, which cannot 
go without having a whole man to carry them 
about. We do our own work ; and do it very well, 
though I say it who should not.” — Then why have 
you a thong to your handle ?” asked Tom. — “To 
hang ourselves up by, when we are off duty.” 

• Tom had got his answer, and had no more to say, 
till they came up to the great iron door of the 
prison. And there the truncheon knocked twice 
with its own head. A wicket in the door opened, 
and out looked a tremendous old brass blunderbuss 
charged up to the muzzle with slugs, who was the 
porter ; and Tom started back a little at the sight. 

‘ ‘ What case is this ? ” he asked in a deep voice, out 
of his broad bell mouth. “If you please, sir, it is 
no case ; only a young gentleman from her lady- 
ship, who wants to see Grimes, the master-sweep.” 

“ Grimes ?” said the blunderbuss. And he pulled 
in his muzzle, perhaps to look over his prisonlists. 
“Grimes is up chimney No. 345,” he said from 
inside. “ So the gentleman had better go on to the 
roof.” Tom looked up at the enormous wall, which 
seemed at least ninety miles high, and wondered 
how he should ever get up : hut, when he hinted 
that to the truncheon, it settled the matter in a mo- 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 227 

merit. For it whisked round, and gave him such a 
shove behind as sent him up to the roof in no time, 
with his little dog under his arm. 

And there he walked along the leads, till he met 
another truncheon, and told him his errand. 
“Very good,” it said. “ Come along : but it will 
be of no use. He is the most unremorseful, hard- 
hearted, foul-mouthed fellow I have in charge ; and 
thinks about nothing but beer and pipes, which are 
not allowed here.” 

So they walked along over the leads, and very 
sooty they were, and Tom thought the chimneys 
must want sweeping very much. But he was sur- 
prised to see that the soot did not stick to his feet, 
or dirty them in the least. Neither did the live 
coals, which were lying about in plenty, burn him ; 
for, being a water-baby, his radical humors were of 
a moist and cold nature, as you may read at large 
in Lemnius, Cardan, Van Helmont, and other gen- 
tlemen, who knew as much as they could, and no 
man can know more. 

And at last they came to chimney No. 345. Out 
of the top of it, his head and shoulders just show- 
ing, stuck poor Grimes, so sooty, and bleared, and 
ugly, that Tom could hardly bear to look at him. 
And in his mouth was a pipe ; but it was not a- 
light ; though he was pulling at it with all his 
might. “Attention, Mr. Grimes,” said the trunch- 
eon ; “ here is a gentleman come to see you.” But 
Grimes only said bad words ; and kept grumbling, 
“ My pipe won’t draw. My pipe won’t draw.” 

“ Keep a civil tongue, and attend ! ” said the 
truncheon ; and popped up just like punch, hitting 
Grimes such a crack over the head with itself that 


228 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


his brains rattled inside like a dried walnut in its 
shell. He tried to get his hands out, and rub the 
place : but he could not, for they were stuck fast 
in the chimney. Now he was forced to attend. — 
“ Hey ! ” he said ; “ why, it’s Tom ! I suppose you 
have ccme here to laugh at me, you spiteful little 
atomy ! ” 

Tom assured him he had not, but, only wanted to 
help him. “I don’t want anything except beer, 
and' that I can’t get ; and a light to this bothering 
pipe, and that I can’t get either.” 

I’ll get you one,” said Tom ; and he took up a 
live coal (there were plenty lying about) and put it 
to Grimes’ pipe : but it went out instantly. 

It’s no use,” said the truncheon, leaning against 
the chimney. ■ tell you, it is no use. His heart 
is so cold that it freezes everything that comes near 
him. You will see that presently, plain enough.” 

Oh, of course, it’s my fault. Everything's al- 
ways my fault,” said Grimes. ‘ ‘ Now don’t go to hit 
me again ” (for the truncheon started upright and 
looked very wicked) ; ‘‘ you know, if my arms were 
only free, you daren’t hit me then.” The trunch- 
eon leanned back against the chimney, and took no 
notice of the personal insult, like a well-trained 
policeman, as it was, though he was ready enough 
to avenge any transgression against morality or 
order. 

But can’t I help you in any other way ? Can’t 
I help you to get out of this chimney ?” said Tom. 
‘‘No,” interposed the truncheon ; “ he has come to the 
place where everybody must help themselves ; and 
he will find it out before he has done with me.” 

“ Oh, yes,” said Grimes, “ of course it’s me. Did I 




230 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


ask to be brought here into the prison ? Did I ask to 
be set to sweep your foul chimneys ? Did I ask to 
have lighted straw put under me to make me go 
up ? Did I ask to stick fast in the very first chim- 
ney of all, because it was so shamefully clogged up 
with soot ? Did I ask to stay here — I don’t know 
how long — a hundred years, I do believe, and never 
get my pipe, nor my beer, nor nothing fit for a 
beast, let alone a man ? ” 

‘‘No,” answered a solemn voice behind. “No 
more did Tom, when you behaved to himin the same 
way.” It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. ^ And, when 
the truncheon saw her, it started bolt upright — At- 
tention ! — and made such a low bow, that if ij5 had 
not been full of the spirit of justice, it must have 
tumbled on its end, and probably hurt its one eye. 
And Tom made his bow, too. “Oh, ma’am,” he 
said, “ don’t think about me ; that’s all past and 
gone, and good times and bad times and all times 
pass over. But may not I help poor Mr. Grimes ? 
Mayn’t I try and get some of these bricks away, 
that he may move his arms ? ” 

“You may try, of course,” she said. So Tom 
tugged at the bricks : but he could not move one. 
And then he tried to wipe Grimes’ face : but the 
soot would not come off. “Oh, dear!” he said. 
“ I have come all this way, through all these terrible 
places, to help you, and now I am of no use at all.” 

“You had best leave me alone,” said Grimes; 
“ you are a good-natured forgiving little chap, and 
that’s truth ; but you’d best be off. The hail’s com- 
ing on soon, and it will beat the eyes out of your 
little head.” 


A FAlJiV TALE FOU A LAI^L-BAnt. 231 

^‘What hail?”— Why, hail that falls every 
evening here ; and, till it comes close to me, it’s like 
so much warm rain : but then it turns to hail over 
my head, and knocks me about like small shot.” 

“The hail will never come anymore,” said the 
strange lady. “ I have told you before what it was. 
It was your mother’s tears, those which she shed 
when she prayed for you by her bedside ; hut your 
cold heart froze it into hail. But she is gone to 
heaven now, and will weep no more for her grace- 
less son.” 9 

Then Grimes was silent awhile ; and then he 
looked very sad. “ So my old mother’s gone, and I 
never there to speak to her ! Ah ! a good woman 
she was, and might have been a happy one, in her 
little school there in Vendale, if it hadn’t been for 
me and my bad ways. ” 

“Did she keep the school in Vendale?” asked 
Tom. And then he told Grimes all the story of his 
going to her house, and how she could not abide the 
sight of a chimney-sweep, and then how kind she 
was, and how he turned into a water-baby. “ Ah ! ” 
said Grimes, “ good reason she had to hate the sight 
of a chimney-sweep. I ran away from her and took 
up with the sweeps, and never let her know where 
I was, nor sent her a penny to help her, and now 
it’s too late — too late ! ” said Grimes. And he began 
crying like a great baby, till his pipe dropped out of 
his mouth, and broke all to hits. 

“Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale 
again, to see the clear beck, and the apple-orchard, 
and the yew-hedge, how different I would go on ! 
But it’s too late now. So you go along, you kind 
little chap, and don’t stand to look at a man crying, 


232 


THE WATEB-BABIES. 


that’s old enough to be your father, and never 
feared the face of man, nor of worse neither. But 
I’m beat now, and beat I must be. I’ve made my 
bed, and I must lie on it. Foul I would be, and foul 
I am, as an Irish- woman said to me once ; and little 
I heeded it. It’s all my own fault ; but it’s too 
late.” And he cried so bitterly that Tom began 
crying, too. — ‘‘Never too late,” said the fairy, in 
such a strange, soft, new voice that Tom looked up 
at her ; and she w^as so beautiful for the moment 
that Tom half fancied she was her sister. 

No more was it too late. For, as poor Grimes 
cried and blubbered on, his own tears did what his 
mother’s could not do, and Tom’s could not do, and 
nobody’s on earth could do for him ; for they washed 
the soot off his face and off his clothes ; and then 
they washed the mortar away from between the 
bricks ; and the chimney crumbled down ; and 
Grimes began to get out of it. 

Up jumped the truncheon, and was going to hit 
him a thump on the crown and drive him down 
again like a cork into a bottle. But the lady put it 
aside. “Will you obey me if I give you a chance ? ” 

“As you please, ma’am. You’re stronger than 
me — that I know too well, and wiser than me, I 
know too well also. As for being my own master, 
I’ve fared ill enough with that. So whatever your 
ladyship pleases to order me ; for I’m beat, and 
that’s the truth.” 

“ Be it so then — you may come out. But remem- 
ber, disobey me again, and into a worse place you go. ” 
— “I beg pardon, ma’am, but I never disobeyed you 
that I know of. I never had the honor of setting 
eyes upon you till I came to these ugly quarters.” 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 


233 


Never saw me ? Who said to you, Those that 
will be foul, foul they will be ? ’’ Grimes looked up ; 
and Tom looked up too ; for the voice was that of 
the Irish-woman who met them the day that they 
went out together to Harthover. “I gave you 
warning then : but you gave it yourself a thousand 
times before and since. Every bad word that you 
said — every cruel and mean thing that you did — 
every time that you got tipsy — every day that you 
went dirty — you were disobeying me, whether you 
knew it or not.” 

If I’d only known, ma’am ” 

‘‘You knew well enough that you were disobeying 
something, though you did not know it was me. 
But come out and take your chance. Perhaps it 
may be your last.” So Grimes stepped out of the 
chimney, and really, if it had not been for the scars 
on his face, he looked as clean and respectable as a 
master-sweep need look, “ Take him away,” said 
she, “and give him his ticket-of-leave.” 

“ And what is he to do, ma’am ?” 

“ Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna ; he 
will find some very steady men working out their 
time there, who will teach him his business : but 
mind, if that crater gets choked up again, and there 
is an earthquake in consequence, bring them all to 
me, and I shall investigate the case very severely.” 
So the truncheon marched off Grimes, looking as 
meek as a drowned worm. And for aught I know, 
he is sweeping the crater of Etna to this very 
day. 

“And now,” said the fairy to Tom, “your work 
here is done. You may as well go back again.” 

“ I should be glad enough to go,” said Tom, “but 


234 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


how am I to get up that great hole again, now the 
steam has stopped blowing ? ’’ 

I will take you up the backstairs : but I must 
bandage your eyes first ; for I never allow anybody 
to see those backstairs of mine.” 

I am sure I shall not tell anybody about them, 
ma’am, if you bid me not.” 

Aha ! So you think, my little man. But you 
would soon forget your promise if you got back into 
the land-world. For, if people only once found out 
that you had been up my backstairs, you would 
have all the fine ladies kneeling to you, and the rich 
men emptying their purses before you, and states- 
men offering you place and power ; and young and 
old, rich and poor, crying to you, ‘ Only tell us the 
great backstairs secret, and we will be your slaves ; 
we will make you lord, king, emperor, bishop, arch- 
bishop, pope if you like — only tell us the secret of 
the backstairs. For thousands of years we have 
been paying, and petting, and obeying, and worship- 
ing quacks who told us they had the key of the 
backstairs, and could smuggle us up them ; and in 
spite of all our disappointments, we will honor, and 
glorify, and adore, and beatify, and translate, and 
apotheotize you likewise, on the chance of your 
knowing something about the backstairs, that we 
may all go on pilgrimage to it : and, even if we 
cannot get up it, lie at the foot of it, and cry — 

‘Oh, backstairs, precious backstairs, invaluable 
backstairs, requisite backstairs, necessary backstairs, 
good-natured backstairs, cosmopolitan backstairs, 
comprehensive backstairs, accommodating back- 
stairs, comfortable backstairs, humane backstairs, 
reasonable backstairs, long-sought backstairs, cov- 





236 


THE WATEE-BABIES, 


eted backstairs, aristocratic backstairs, respectable 
backstairs, gentlemanlike backstairs, well-bred back' 
stairs, commercial backstairs, economical backstairs, 
practical backstairs, logical backstairs, deductive 
backstairs, ladylike backstairs, orthodox back- 
stairs, probable backstairs, credible backstairs, 
demonstrable backstairs, irrefragable backstairs, 
potent backstairs, all-but-omnipotent backstairs, etc. 
Save us from the consequences of our own actions, 
and from the cruel fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! ’ 
Do not you think that you would be a little tempted 
then to tell what you know, laddie ? 

Tom thought so certainly. ‘‘ But why do they 
want so to know about the backstairs ? ” asked he, 
being frightened at the long words, and not under- 
standing them the least ; as, indeed, he was not 
meant to do, or you either. — ‘‘That I shall never 
tell you. I never put things into little folks’ heads 
which are likely to come there of themselves. So 
come — now I must bandage your eyes.” So she 
tied the bandage on his eyes with one hand and with 
the other she took it off. “ Now,” she said, “you 
are safe up the stairs.” 

The first thing which Tom saw was the black 
cedars, high and sharp against the rosy dawn ; 
and St, Brandan’s Isle reflected double in the still 
broad silver sea. The wind san g softly in the cedars, 
and the water sang among the caves ; the sea-birds 
sang as they streamed out into the ocean, and the 
land-birds as they built among the boughs ; and the 
air was so full of song that it stirred St. Brandan 
and his hermits, as they slumbered in the shade ; 
and they moved their good old lips, and sang their 
morning hymn amid their dreams. But among all 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 237 

the songs one came across the water sweeter than 
all ; for it was the song of a young girl’s voice. 

And what was the song which she sang ? Ah, my 
little man, I am too old to sing that song, and you 
too young to understand it. But have patience, 
and keep your eye single and your hands clean, and 
you will learn some day to sing it yourself, without 
needing any man to teach you. 

And, as Tom neared the island, there sat upon a 
rock a most graceful creature, looking down, with 
her chin upon her hand, and paddling with her feet 
in the water. And when they came to her she looked 
up, and behold it was Elbe. ^‘Oh, Miss Ellie,” 
said he, ‘‘how you are grown ! ” — “ Oh, Tom,” said 
she, “ how you are grown, too ! ” 

And no wonder ; they were both quite grown up 
— he into a tall man, and she into a beautiful woman. 
“ Perhaps I may be grown,” she said. “ I have had 
time enough ; for I have been sitting here waiting 
for you many a hundred years, till I thought you 
were never coming. ” 

“Many a hundred years?” thought Tom; but 
he had seen so much in his travels that he had 
given up being astonished ; and, indeed, he could 
think of nothing but Ellie. So he stood and looked 
at Ellie, and Ellie looked at him ; and they liked the 
employment so much that they stood and looked for 
seven years more, and neither spoke nor stirred. 
At last they heard the fairy say : “ Attention, 
children. Are you never going to look at me 
again ? ” 

“We have been looking at you all this while,” 
they said. And so they thought they had been. — 
“ Then look at me once more,” said she. 


238 


THE WATER-BABIES, 


‘‘They looked — and both of them cried out at 
once, “ Oh, who are you, after all ? ” 

“ You are our dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby.” 

“No, you are good Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ; but 
you are grown quite beautiful now ! ” 

“ To you,” said the fairy. “ But look again.” 

“ You are Mother Carey,” said Tom, in a very 
low, solemn voice ; for he had found out something 
which made him very happy, and yet frightened 
him more than all that he had ever seen. 

“ But you are grown quite young again.” 

“ To you,” said the fairy. “ Look again.” 

“You are the Irish woman who met me the day 
I went to Harthover ! ” 

And when they looked she was neither of them, 
and yet all of them at once. “ My name is written 
in my eyes, if you have eyes to see it there.” And 
they looked into her great, deep, soft eyes, and they 
changed again and again into every hue, as the 
light changes in a diamond. “Now read my 
name,” said she, at last. 

And her eyes flashed for one moment, clear, 
white, blazing light : but the children could not 
read her name ; for they were dazzled, and hid 
their faces in their hands. “Not yet, young things, 
not yet,” said she, smiling ; and then she turned to 
Ellie. “You may take him home with you nowon 
Sundays, Ellie. He has won his spurs in the great 
battle, and become fit to go with you and be a man ; 
because he has done the thing he did not like.” 

So Tom went home with Ellie on Sundays, and 
sometimes on week-days, too ; and he is now a great 
man of science, and can plan railroads, and steam- 
engines, and electric telegraphs, and rifled guns, 


A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 239 

and knows everything about everything. And all 
this from what he learned when he was a water- 
baby, underneath the sea. 

“ And of course Tom married Ellie ? ” 

My dear child, what a silly notion ! Don’t you 
know that no one every marries in a fairy tale, under 
the rank of a prince or a princess. 

“ And Tom’s dog? ” Oh, you may see him any 
clear night in July ; for the old dog star was so 
worn out by the last three hot summers that there 
have been no dog-days since ; so that they had to 
take him down and put Tom’s dog up in his place. 
Therefore, as new brooms sweep clean, we may 
hope for some warm weather this year. And that 
is the end of my story. 


4 



A FAIRY TALE FOB A LANL-BABY. 


241 


MORAL. 

And now. my dear little man, what should we 
learn from this parable ? 

We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine things, 
I am not exactly sure which : but one thing, at 
least, we may learn, and that is this — when we see 
efts in the pond, never to throw stones at them, or 
catch them with crooked pins, or put them into 
vivariums with sticklebacks, that the sticklebacks 
may prick them in their poor little stomachs, and 
make them jump out of the glass into somebody’s 
work-box, and so come to a bad end. For these efts 
are nothing else but the water-babies who are stupid 
and dirty, and will not learn their lessons and keep 
themselves clean ; and, therefore (as comparative 
anatomists will tell you fifty years hence, though 
they are not learned enough to tell you now), their 
skulls grow fiat, their jaws grow out, and their 
brains grow small, and their tails grow long, and 
they lose all their ribs (which I am sure you would 
not like to do), and their skins grow dirty and spot- 
ted, and they never get into the clear rivers, much 
less into the great wide sea, but hang about in dirty 
ponds, and live in the mud, and eat worms, as they 
deserve to do. 

But that is no reason why you should ill-use them : 
but only why you should pity them, and be kind to 
them, and hope that some day they will wake up, 
and be ashamed of their nasty, dirty, lazy, stupid 
life and try to amend, and become something better 
once more. For, perhaps, if they do so, then after 


242 


THE WATER-BABIES. 


379,423 years, nine months, thirteen days, two hours, 
and twenty-one minutes (for aught that appears 
to the contrary), if they work very hard and wash 
very hard all that time, their brains may grow 
bigger, and their jaws grow smaller, and their ribs 
come back, and their tails wither off, and they will 
turn into water-babies again, and perhaps after that 
into land-babies ; and after that perhaps into grown 
men. 

You know they won’t ? Very well, I daresay you 
know best. But, you see, some folks have a great 
liking for those poor little efts. They never did 
anybody any harm, or could if they tried ; and their 
only fault is, that they do no good — any more than 
some thousands of their betters. But what with 
ducks, and what with pike, and what with stickle- 
backs, and what with water-beetles, and what with 
naughty boys, they are “ sae sair hadden doun,” as 
the Scotsmen say, that it is a wonder how they 
live ; and some folks can’t help hoping, with good 
Bishop Butler, that they may have another chance, 
to make things fair and even, somewhere, some- 
when, somehow. 

Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank 
God that you have plenty of cold water to wash in ; 
and wash in it, too, like a true Englishman. And 
then, if my story is not true, something better is ; 
and if I am not quite right, still you will be, as long 
as you stick to hard work and cold water. 

But remember always, as I told you at first, that 
this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretense ; 
and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, 
even if it is true. 






4 



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YOONG PEOPLE’S LIBRARY 


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Cloak. A parable for old and young. By Miss Muloch. 
With twenty-four illustrations in colors. 

‘ No sweeter— that is the proper word— Christmas story for the little folks could easily 
be found, and it is as delightful for older readers as well. There is a moral to it which 
the reader can find out for himself, if he chooses to think.*'— Herald, 

A CHILD’S STORY OF THE BIBLE. With fifty 
Dore illustrations in colors. 

Tells^ in simple language and in a form fitted for the hands of the younger members of 
^e Christian flock, the tale of God’s dealings with his Chosen People under the Old 
Dispensation, with its foreshadowings of the coming of that Messiah who was to make 
all mankind one fold under one Shepherd. 

A CHILD’S LIFE OF CHRIST. With forty Dore 
illustrations in colors. 

God has implanted in the infant’s heart a desire to hear of Jesus, and children are early 
attracted and sweetly riveted by the wonderful story of the Master from the Manger to 
the Throne. In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every incident, 
expression and description within the verge of their compreliension in the effort to 
weave them into a memorial garland of their Saviour. 

WATER-BABIES ; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. 
By Charles Kingsley. With about forty engravings in 
black and white, and twenty-two full-page illustrations 
in COLORS. 

“ Simply inimitable , and will delight boys and girls of mature age, as well as their juniors. 
No happier combination of author and artist than this volume presents could be found 
to furnish healthy amusement to the young folks. The book is an artistic one in every 
sense .” — Boston Transcript. 


THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS. 
With about thirty full-page charming illustrations in 
COLORS, and many text-engravings in black and white. 

Contains the best known of the stories which have been edited for the young so that 
they may be read without scruple or compunction. . . . It forms an excellent introduc- 
tion to those immortal tales which have helped so long to keep the weary world young. 

OTHERS IN PREPARATION 


GILBERT H. McKIBBIN 

474 WEST BROADWAY, New Yorli City. 





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